UK has "adequate supplies" of remdesivir, top medical official says
The UK has “adequate supplies” of
the antiviral drug remdesivir, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam told lawmakers Wednesday.
Van-Tam was speaking to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee after the United States bought 100% of the production of the drug, which has been shown to have some effect against coronavirus.
He said that although quantities of the drug will be “less plentiful” and “less easy to obtain,” the UK has “adequate supplies” of the treatment drug.
The UK has not yet conducted its own formal assessment of the drug, which has been recommended for European authorization by the European Medicines Agency.
Van-Tam said the UK Task Force had been keeping “a very close eye” on the progress of trials elsewhere. Remdesivir is currently available for emergency use by clinicians in UK hospitals.
He also spoke of the UK’s successful clinical trials of the
steroid dexamethasone, saying that the government task force made the decision to gather supplies weeks before a successful outcome to put the UK “in the best possible position.”
Van-Tam called the dexamethasone trials “the most dramatic success in terms of active success and rapid recruitment,” hailing the drug as an “extremely cheap” and “accessible” form of treatment.
“Depending on which medicine you discover works for Covid-19, if it’s one of the ones that is already licensed for something else, then it tends to be plentifully available. But if it’s something brand spanking new from a developer it is likely to be in short supply in the first instance,” he added.
