Monday, September 7, 2020

Coronavirus - remdesivir #2

 A Wall Street Journal article says that nearly three dozen attorneys general are attempting a legal act of theft of Gilead's patent on remdesivir. Since the article is behind a paywall, the following are some excerpts.

The attorneys general effectively assert that remdesivir belongs to the government because taxpayers helped fund its development. 

First, Gilead’s scientists are entirely responsible for the invention of remdesivir.

The government didn’t get involved until later, when it teamed up with Gilead to test whether the drug was effective against Ebola. 

Later, Gilead collaborated with academic and government institutions to test remdesivir against coronaviruses like SARS and MERS. But the total government expense for research adjacent to remdesivir, about $70 million, is a fraction of the more than $1 billion Gilead has committed to the drug. 

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