Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt on Tuesday, urged federal agencies to exercise special legal authority to increase the availability of remdesivir, a drug showing results in reducing hospitalization and mortality from COVID-19. Schmidt, along with a bipartisan coalition of 33 other state and territory attorneys general, requested the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration use their authority under a 40-year-old federal statute to prevent manufacturing bottlenecks and ensure that Americans can afford the drug and have reasonable access to a sufficient supply. The statute was enacted in 1980 through legislation sponsored by then-U.S. Senator Bob Dole. Remdesivir is an FDA fast-tracked antiviral drug that was produced with the benefit of millions of dollars of federal funding and the time and expertise of the Centers for Disease Control and military scientists. Despite a manufacturing cost of between $1 and $5, the drug’s manufacturer has set the price at $3,200 per treatment course and has been unable to provide assurance that it can produce enough of the medication to meet demand. One provision of the Bayh-Dole Act, authorizes the FDA to license remdesivir to third-party manufacturers in order to scale up production and distribution to ensure the drug is made available to all those in need at a reasonable price.
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