US purchases world stocks of remdesivir: why the rest of the world should be glad to be at the back of the queue

On 30 June, the Guardian ran an article with the headline “US secures world stock of key covid-19 drug remdesivir,” lamenting the monopolisation for “the next three months of one of the two drugs proven to work against covid-19, leaving none for the UK, Europe, or most of the rest of the world.”1 This “me first” attitude should surprise nobody familiar with the current US administration’s attitude towards anything involving international collaboration—such as its stance on climate change, the World Health Organization, trade, and immigration.

Paradoxically, the remdesivir story may actually be good news for the rest of the world. Let me elaborate. The evidence for remdesivir’s clinical benefit is provided by a randomised controlled trial of 1063 patients published in the New England Journal of Medicine. It shows a shortened median time to recovery in the remdesivir …