New EC procurement deal for Gilead's Veklury

US biotech Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) and the European Commission today signed a new joint procurement agreement (JPA) that will ensure continued rapid and equitable access to Veklury (remdesivir) for participating member states across the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA).

The agreement covers purchases of Veklury over the next 12 months and has the option to be extended for an additional six months. Financial terms were not disclosed. It follows the expiration of the original JPA agreement, the first for a COVID-19 therapeutic, signed in October 2020.

That followed 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 2020, which was financed from the Commission's  Emergency Support Instrument (ESI), worth a total of $82 million. Veklury generated first-quarter 2022 sales of $1.54 billion for Gilead, up 5% on the like, year-earlier period.