TEXARKANA, Texas - Both of the city's hospitals are among those in Texas to receive allocations of an antiviral drug that has shown promise in treating COVID-19.
The Texas Department of State Health Services last week announced distribution of the drug, called remdesivir, to more than 140 hospitals, including Texarkana's Wadley Regional Medical Center and CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System. It was the second round of remdesivir allocations by TDSHS, which so far has distributed almost 1,000 cases of the drug, enough to treat thousands of patients.
TDSHS used a five-day average of hospitalization data to determine how much of the drug each Texas county would receive.
"The hospital is reserving this medication for our most critically ill patients in our ICU, and several patients have received remdesivir along with other treatments to support their recovery from this illness," said Dr. Loren Robinson, CHRISTUS St. Michael's vice president for medical affairs.
Wadley Regional Medical Center did not respond to inquiries about its use of the drug by presstime Thursday.
Manufactured by pharmaceutical corporation Gilead Sciences, remdesivir has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for any use. But the FDA has issued an Emergency Use Authorization to allow using remdesivir in the treatment of patients with severe COVID-19.
The drug works by interfering in the virus' self-reproduction process. Preliminary results from a clinical trial in May showed the average recovery time among COVID-19 patients who received remdesivir was 11 days versus 15 days with a placebo.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has secured more than 500,000 cases of remdesivir through the summer, 100% of Gilead's projected production for July and 90% of its production for August and September. HHS allocates the drug to state health agencies, and those agencies distribute it to hospitals.
Some public health experts have criticized the Trump administration for its deal with Gilead, accusing it of hoarding almost the entire global supply of remdesivir for use only in the U.S., the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Gilead announced Monday that it will price remdesivir at $390 per vial. Once hospitals exhaust the current donated supply, future doses will be bought through the normal pharmacy supply chain process.
"Based on current treatment patterns, the vast majority of patients are expected to receive a 5-day treatment course using 6 vials of remdesivir, which equates to $2,340 per patient," a Gilead news release stated.
Robinson encouraged everyone to adhere to public health safety protocols to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
"As we continue to see hospitalizations from COVID-19 increase, we urge the public to continue with social distancing, good hand hygiene and hand washing, and the wearing of face coverings any time they leave their homes," she said.