Gilead Sciences Signs Joint Procurement Agreement with the European Commission for Veklury® (Remdesivir)

Gilead Sciences and the European Commission today signed a joint procurement agreement (JPA) that will enable rapid and equitable access to Veklury (remdesivir), the first antiviral licensed for the treatment of COVID-19 in the European Union (EU) and the UK. The JPA enables 37 participating countries in the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK to purchase Veklury to address increasing demand and to start to address stockpiling needs, coordinated by the European Commission. The agreement covers purchases of Veklury over the next six months and has the option to be extended. The JPA replaces an Emergency Support Instrument (ESI) that enabled the European Commission to procure Veklury for EU Member States and the UK, from August through October 2020.

In the UK, Veklury is indicated for the treatment of COVID-19 in adult and adolescent patients with pneumonia requiring supplemental oxygen, following the conditional marketing authorisation granted by the European Commission on July 3, 2020.

Supply of Veklury is expected to start to meet increased global demand by the end of this month, enabling the purchase of Veklury both to treat patients and to support the start of national stockpiling of the medicine for current and future surges of COVID-19, if required. The significant increase in Veklury supply is the result of early investments that Gilead made to increase internal manufacturing capacity, expand our external contract manufacturing network (more than 40 contract manufacturing organisations, including more than 10 partner sites in Europe) and shorten the production timeline through process improvements. Through these efforts, Gilead is on track to produce more than 2 million treatment courses of Veklury this year, increasing supply by more than 400-fold since January 2020, and will produce several million more treatment courses in 2021, if required.

Gilead UK is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care to understand the current needs in the UK and working to address these as quickly as possible. Gilead is committed to supporting the global health community to quickly and effectively respond to COVID-19, and to ensuring the broad availability of Veklury around the world.