Gilead criticised a World Health Organization study that raised doubts about its Covid-19 treatment, insisting that the overnight blockbuster drug does improve survival rates for a large group of hospitalised patients - FT reports.
According to FT, the company mounted the defence of remdesivir as it revealed that the drug, which had not even been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration at the start of the year, generated $873m in revenue in the third quarter.
The WHO study published this month found remdesivir, now known by its brand name Veklury, had little effect on mortality, reducing time in hospital or whether a patient ends up on a ventilator.
Gilead said that the WHO Solidarity trial had failed to distinguish between patients requiring low or high levels of oxygen. Remdesivir improved survival rates for patients on low levels of oxygen, according to an analysis of data from another trial run by the US National Institutes of Health, Gilead said.
Analysts had forecast $1bn of remdesivir sales in the third quarter, and $2.6bn for the full year, as the company signs commercial deals in the US and with governments in other countries - FT reported.
