Opinion: Acknowledging the public role in private drug development: lessons from remdesivir
The quest for vaccines and therapeutic treatments against Covid-19 shouldn’t be complicated or delayed by charged debates over patent rights, the respective public and private roles in biopharmaceutical innovation, and whether the U.S. government should use its legal powers to “break” patents in order to promote access to medicines. But it may be.
Gilead’s antiviral drug remdesivir, for which the FDA recently granted emergency use authorization for Covid-19, is currently caught in the crosshairs of the debate. We suggest a path forward that could be useful in the remdesivir case and in others.
