
NIH trial of remdesivir for COVID-19 begins in hospitalized adults in Nebraska - bookofjoe
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-clinical-trial-remdesivir-treat-covid-19-begins
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RcouF1uZ4gsC
> Remdesivir, developed by Gilead Sciences Inc.,

This is the same Gilead Sciences that developed a cure for Hepatitis C, but
was crucified in the press because of the high upfront cost.

I want pharma to makes lots of money so they care hire lots of smart people. I
want developing cures for viruses and diseases to be at least as a good a
career path for smart kids in the future as working for a Silicon Valley
company writing the next chat app or developing the next advertising platform.

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frandroid
Or you know, we can determine that the cost of keeping people healthy is a
social good and invest in that. I don't think we need market indicators to
show that we don't want people to die. And we know that that market signal
distorts the needs addressed so that chronic alleviation things get more
attention than one-time cures...

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RcouF1uZ4gsC
> Or you know, we can determine that the cost of keeping people healthy is a
> social good and invest in that.

Social goods that we ostensibly invest in, often are crappy career paths in
terms of pay. If you don't believe me, talk with a teacher. We know that few
things contribute to the social good as much as a good education, but tell me
honestly. If you knew a poor, smart, hard working kid, what career path would
you suggest, teacher or software developer?

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r_harriso
> what career path would you suggest, teacher or software developer?

Depends on what they like to do. There is a lot we can change so that people
can do what they love without punishing careers that aren't directly tied to
profit.

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allovernow
I don't understand why they aren't trialing chloroquine. Isn't it more readily
available and cheaper?

[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-020-0282-0](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-020-0282-0)

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jws
[https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04261517?cond=covid-1...](https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04261517?cond=covid-19&draw=6&rank=45)

That is studying hydroxychloroquine, a less toxic metabolite of chloroquine.

If you navigate up a bit on that web site and enter COVID-19 for your search
you will find about 50 studies, roughly a dozen or so are checking drugs.

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gnulinux
But how are they having 50 studies if there are barely 50 confirmed cases in
the US? Are they testing these drugs on other viral pneumonia patients? Or is
this a "once we have patients we will initiate testing" sort of thing?

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jimrandomh
Most of the trials are happening in China, not the US.

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gnulinux
So if they do succeed they won't have any implications in the US since FDA
doesn't approve of them and insurances will refuse pay, right?

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sabujp
what about the mrna drug?

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bookofjoe
[https://time.com/5790545/first-
covid-19-vaccine/](https://time.com/5790545/first-covid-19-vaccine/)

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alpb
That footer, though.

> NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

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bookofjoe
They had me at ®

