Lawmaker asks HHS to ensure Gilead’s remdesivir is affordable if U.S. taxpayers funded R&D
Now that preliminary trial results indicate an experimental Gilead Sciences (GILD) drug can successfully treat some Covid-19, one lawmaker wants to know if U.S. taxpayer dollars helped pay for any of the research and development and, if so, what the federal government will do to ensure that Americans do not later encounter “price gouging.”
In a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) noted the National Institutes of Health spent nearly $700 million on coronavirus research overall and asked the HHS to provide information about various ways the agency may have provided funding that contributed to development of the Gilead drug, which is called remdesivir.
