Key lawmaker raises concerns over cost of Gilead’s coronavirus treatment

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations panels – which oversees the nation's health care industry – said today she has concerns over the proposed cost of a potentially life-saving coronavirus treatment, known as remdesivir, after its maker, Gilead Sciences, announced it plans to charge patients in the U.S. $3,120 for a typical five-day treatment of the medication.

"We are in the midst of a full-blown global health crisis," DeGette said. "We need to make sure any treatment that has the potential to save lives is available to all those who need it, not just those who can afford it. We have seen firsthand how the skyrocketing cost of insulin made it inaccessible to millions of Americans who desperately need it. We can't allow the same thing to happen when it comes to potential treatments for thisvirus."

As chair of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, DeGette leads the panel that directly oversees the federal agency's that are responsible for approving new drugs for market – including the FDA, which recently granted Gilead emergency authorization to begin using remdesivir to treat COVID-19 patients, the National Institutes of Health, which studied remdesvir's effectiveness in COVID-19 patients, and the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for securing thousands of doses of the medication to distribute to hospitals across the country.

In March 2019, as chair of the panel, DeGette announced her plans to hold a series of hearings into the skyrocketing cost of insulin to determine what Congress could do to lower the cost of the drug. In the weeks leading up to those hearings, all three major U.S. manufactures of insulin announced new programs to decrease the cost of their insulin products for patients across the U.S.