The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently expanded the label for Gilead Sciences' (GILD 0.27%) COVID-19 therapy Veklury (remdesivir) to be used in treating non-hospitalized adults. In addition, the agency expanded the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the drug to include children below age 12. In this Motley Fool Live video, recorded on Jan. 26, Fool contributors Keith Speights and Brian Orelli discuss how big these latest COVID-19 wins are for Gilead.
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Keith Speights: Let's jump right on in. So Gilead Sciences picked up another expansion of its label for COVID-19 therapy Veklury, also known as remdesivir. The FDA approved use of this IV drug in treating non-hospitalized adults. It also expanded the pediatric emergency use authorization to include children younger than 12.
So Brian, how big do you think these latest COVID wins might be for Gilead?
Brian Orelli: I think whether Gilead will benefit from this -- this is largely dependent on the availability of Pfizer's (PFE -0.38%) COVID-19 treatment.
So Gilead's drug clearly helps non-hospitalized patients. It reduces the risk of hospitalization or death by 87% but has to be infused. Even worse, it has to be infused for three days in a row.
There's no way patients would take that over popping Pfizer's pill. Basically, it comes down to can you get Pfizer's pill? If no, are you at high enough risks to justify going in and getting an infusion through an infusion center three times? Even then, one of the antibody treatments might be a better option. At least they only require one infusion.
The expansion into kids under 12 could result in some additional sales because it's not competing with Pfizer's pill there that's only approved for adults. But I think there's probably limited cases of kids under 12, meeting that treatment. I think Gilead's biggest opportunity remains in the hospitalized patients setting where it doesn't have to compete against the pills because they aren't approved for those patients.
Speights: I think, especially with the news about two of the monoclonal antibodies having their emergency use authorization revoked by the FDA because they're just not effective at treating omicron, I think Gilead's drug is having a lot more legs than I expected, Brian.
Orelli: Yeah. I think that's probably that's an issue. I don't know what the supply is for the other ones that do work against the omicron variants. So that's going to be the question.
But I'd much rather get one infusion than three infusions. I think my choice I would go get a monoclonal antibody if that was available to me over getting remdesivir. But I still think there's still a lot of people in the hospital and those patients are going to be getting remdesivir. I think that's probably where it's most likely to benefit from at this point.
