Or they could just use what works—hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin and zinc.
That’s the beauty of capitalism. Gilead will work on a new, improved, more effective derivative product to capture market share and improve its profits. Sick patients will benefit. Doubt “government labs” or socialist countries with stilted drug companies will do much. Yet you can count on leftist politicians to curse capitalism and to try to tax and regulate Gilead out of productive existence. Pandemic or no pandemic, some things don’t change.
Some background: Remdesivir works by interfering with the cellular machinery that allows viruses to replicate inside a human host. It is a pro-drug, meaning it must be metabolized and undergo a sequence of five bioactivation steps before it becomes GS-441524 triphosphate, the active compound that impedes viral replication.
Remdesivir isn’t Gilead’s only antiviral nucleoside analogue. The company has also developed GS-441524, another pro-drug that, as its name suggests, the body also converts into GS-441524 triphosphate, but in just in three steps. GS-441524 is easier to synthesize than remdesivir, requiring three steps instead of the seven needed for remdesivir.
… by extracting $340 Billion from US citizens, and Trillions more from the people of other nations for Gilead.
It’s all about the dollar. Why make the cheap stuff when the harder to make stuff will bring you more profit?