Remdesivir to Cost $4,290 for 10-Day Coronavirus Treatment; Cheaper than $12K for Longer Hospital Stay

Remdesivir appears to help some people recover faster and not die from coronavirus. How much is that worth to you? Based on an estimated cost of 93¢ to manufacture one daily dose and the estimated tens of millions in taxpayer support poured into remdesivir’s development, consumer advocate Public Citizen says a dollar a dose offers a reasonable profit to manufacturer Gilead Sciences. Yesterday, Gilead announced remdesivir will start at $390 per vial and a few thousand bucks for full treatment regimes, depending on who’s paying:

The drugmaker said it will sell remdesivir for $390 per vial to governments “of developed countries” around the world, and the price for U.S. private insurance companies will stand at $520 per vial.

…The majority of patients treated with remdesivir will receive a five-day treatment course using six vials of remdesivir, the company said. That would bring the government cost to $2,340 for patients on the five-day treatment and $3,120 for patients through commercial insurance.

The longer, 10-day treatment course, which uses an average of about 11 vials, will cost governments $4,290 per patient and $5,720 for a U.S. patient with private insurance [William Feuer, “Gilead’s Coronavirus Treatment Remdesivir to Cost $3,120 per U.S. Patient with Private Insurance,” CNBC, 2020.06.29].

Rather than basing its charge on its own manufacturing costs, Gilead figures it deserves a cut of all the money it will save us on hospital bills:

Use of the drug will help hospitals save about $12,000 per patient due to earlier hospital discharge, the company said. In April, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases released results from its study that showed Covid-19 patients who took remdesivir usually recovered about four days faster than those who didn’t take the drug [Feuer, 2020.06.29].

Remdesivir appears to produce the best results among patients with mild cases of coronavirus; it does not appear to do much good for patients on ventilators. Meanwhile, dexamethasone, a low-dose steroid already on the market, cuts the risk of death from coronavirus by a third among patients on ventilators and a fifth among those on oxygen but may be risky for patients with mild cases of coronavirus. Dexamethasone costs less than a dollar a day.