A CNN investigation into remdesivir finds that doctors in several developing countries report ample supplies of the drug, while US patients have faced shortages -- even though the drug is made by a US pharmaceutical company and was developed with the help of US taxpayer money.
"The government funded it, and patients in hospitals like ours couldn't get it," said Patterson, chief of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.
The drug costs $2,340 for a five-day course of treatment, and US hospitals don't purchase it directly the way they do other drugs. Because there isn't enough to go around, HHS arranges for remdesivir to be shipped regularly to hospitals.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF Health, said that several times he's come close to not having enough for his Covid-19 patients.
"We've been very close to falling off the cliff," he said.
Then Chin-Hong got the idea of asking nearby hospitals to borrow some of their remdesivir, promising he'd return the favor when his hospital's next shipment came in.
"It's like we're in a medieval market and doing trades with chickens and goats," he said.
Covid-19 drug rationed in the US is plentiful in developing countries - CNN
