the United States has struck a deal to
buy almost the entire world supply of a
drug that's known to help people recover
from kovat 19 in trials carried out in
the UK as well as elsewhere REM de
Sevilla was cutting the time needed in
hospital for the most seriously ill by
about four days it's one of only two
drugs known to be effective in treating
the virus as our medical correspondent
Fergus washer explains Geraldine from
North London is one of more than a
thousand kovat patients who took part in
a global trial of REM des aver this is
her receiving the drug in April she made
a rapid recovery and is shocked that the
drug has been bought up by the US I
wanted to be part of something that
could potentially help everyone and I
feel that no only a small percentage of
the world's population really are going
to receive any benefit from it and then
the near future it's really
disappointing REM dezube it takes months
to manufacture so there was already a
shortage this deal means the American
pharma company Gilead will reserve
nearly all production in the coming
three months for u.s. patients millions
of patients affected worldwide those
patients need access to proven
treatments for one country to dominate
the access to a single treatment is
beyond unfortunate
there are now two drugs which have
proven to be effective against kovat 19
REM des avea and the steroid
dexamethasone ran des aver costs 1,900
pounds per course of treatment whereas
dexamethasone costs just five pounds
REM des aver cuts the duration of
symptoms from 15 to 11 days but is not
proven to reduce the risk of dying
whereas dexamethasone cuts the risk of
dying by a third in the most seriously
ill patients
the NHS says it has enough REM deser
beer for patients who currently need it
but how long that will last is unclear
but there are ample supplies of
dexamethasone which is now the standard
treatment for seriously ill COBIT
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