Gilead inks new deal for Veklury supply in Europe

Following a tentative supply deal with the European Commission in late July, US biotech major Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) today revealed it has signed a joint procurement agreement (JPA) that will enable rapid and equitable access to Veklury (remdesivir), the first antiviral drug proven to be effective for the treatment of COVID-19 in the European Union.

According to a statement from the Commission today, Gilead will supply up to 500,000 treatment courses of Veklury. The new contract follows the Commission's contract with Gilead to secure 33,380 treatment courses of Veklury that have been distributed across the EU and the UK since August, which was financed from the Commission's Emergency Support Instrument (ESI), worth a total of 70 million euros ($82.3). Financial terms of the latest deal were not revealed.

On July 3, the EC granted conditional marketing authorization for Veklury as a treatment for SARS-CoV-2 infection, the virus that causes COVID-19, based on data from the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled ACTT-1 trial that demonstrated the clinical efficacy and safety of Veklury in COVID-19 patients with pneumonia requiring supplemental oxygen.