Gilead donated 1.5 million vials of the drug, the first to receive emergency authorization by the FDA to treat COVID-19, to the government. But the first batch was given to hospitals with no intensive care units, and therefore no eligible patients, and to hospitals without the refrigeration needed to store it, meaning some had to be returned to the government, nine current and former senior administration officials told the Post.
The initial batch consisted of 607,000 vials of remdesivir and was sent to hospitals in 13 states. Many hospitals weren’t prepared to receive the drug because they weren’t told they’d be receiving it beforehand, according to the Post.
The federal government had been allocating the drug itself, but on May 5 it said it would start sending the drug to states, which would then decide which hospitals would get it. State officials told the Post the new system has “greatly improved” the distribution process.
Read the full article here.
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