# Vaccine is here



## greenstreak1946 (May 28, 2017)

Gilead labs will be releasing a vaccine treatment shortly. They have already signed contracts with the health division in the USA. The cost to them will be over $2300 for a 5 day treatment. WOW! Who can afford that price. The ones covered by insurance will be $5300. 

I am wondering when the VA hospitals will have access to this vaccine?

Art


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Hi,
Remdesivir is actually an anti-viral drug treatment to treat patients who are suffering from COVID-19 - it is not a vaccine!
Being a treatment, it won’t stop anybody from catching the virus - it simply reduces the recovery time for patients that respond to this treatment.
Cheers
Steve


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

Stevesolar said:


> Hi,
> Remdesivir is actually an anti-viral drug treatment to treat patients who are suffering from COVID-19 - it is not a vaccine!
> Being a treatment, it won’t stop anybody from catching the virus - it simply reduces the recovery time for patients that respond to this treatment.
> Cheers
> Steve


This has been around forva week or two, wasn't the headlines something like 5$ drug helps patients with covid.


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## Manitoba (Jun 25, 2014)

The news was that the price was released. $2300 is the price discounted for the US government. Fill price is more than 3000USD, within the US.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gilead-coronavirus-treatment-remdesivir-private-insurance-cost/

Often times drug prices in the US are much more than the same company charges outside of the US.

I have seen estimates of cost of production at $10.


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## greenstreak1946 (May 28, 2017)

yeah I mislabeled my post. the drug is not a vaccine but a 5 day treatment while in the hospital. They said it could cut the time in the hospital by 4 days and have less severe symptoms.

art


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Gary D said:


> This has been around forva week or two, wasn't the headlines something like 5$ drug helps patients with covid.


Hi,
There are a basket of drugs available to treat patients with COVID-19.
The cheap drug that has been found to be effective in many patients is Dexamethasone - that is probably the one you saw in the headlines regarding 5$.
Remdesivir probably costs very little to produce - but the selling price always needs to reflect the amortization of the r&d costs that were spent developing, testing and trialing the drug to get it to the market.
That is why drug companies enjoy a period of 20 years protection before a generic can be released onto the market.
Even then, I am not convinced that the drug companies don’t collude with each other to keep the generic selling prices high - so that they can all benefit from high margins - even after the patent protection ends!
Cheers
Steve


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