Dutch hospitals are currently unable to order the virus inhibitor remdesivir, say RIVM and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) in the Financieele Dagblad. The last doses were sent on Sunday. The hospitals were then told that new orders were not possible.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport calls the shortage “very annoying”. The Netherlands has reportedly been discussing this with the European Commission, which purchases the virus inhibitor centrally and arranges the distribution among the EU member states. Whether other European countries are also faced with a shortage is unclear, according to the RIVM and VWS.
Home earlier
Remdesivir is originally an anti-Ebola drug developed by the American pharmaceutical company Gilead. In June, European drug authorities also approved the drug for use in corona patients in hospital with respiratory problems. On average, they would recover more quickly after administration of the virus inhibitor.
At the end of August, Annelies Verbon, chairman of the Dutch association for internist infectiologists, said, against the NOS that some of the admitted corona patients therefore do not require artificial respiration. “And some can go home a few days earlier.”
Initially, the studies on remdesivir were incidentally less hopeful. And even now, not everyone agrees that it works. According to Diederik Gommers, chairman of the Dutch Association for Intensive Care, about half of the studies on the drug are positive and the other half shows no difference with the control group. “But because the drug is not harmful, it is given.”
Scarce
In the United States, remdesivir was already approved in May. Two months later, the Americans bought up about 500,000 doses, making the drug more scarce in the rest of the world. In July it was announced that the EU also wanted to buy the drug, for the treatment of 30,000 corona patients.
Meanwhile, global demand for remdesivir continues to increase. President Trump will also be with it treated.
‘Not a disaster’
Incidentally, doctors are not yet alarmed by the shortage of the virus inhibitor, the FD writes. According to Mark de Boer, internist-infectiologist at the LUMC, the shortages are “unpleasant”, but “not a disaster”. De Boer is involved in drawing up treatment guidelines for corona patients.
–
