File photo: A lab technician shows the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) treatment drug "Remdesivir" at Eva Pharma Facility. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
Brussels: The European Commission said on Wednesday it had agreed with U.S. company Gilead to buy additional doses to treat about 3,400 patients of its COVID-19 drug Remdesivir, amid shortages of the medication in Europe.
A spokesman for the EU executive said Brussels agreed with Gilead last Friday to supply nearly 20,300 additional doses "which help almost 3,400 patients" at a cost of 7 million euros ($8.24 million). That is in addition to 30,000 courses of treatment it bought at the end of July.
"These additional doses are being currently delivered," the spokesman told a news conference, adding the EU was giving priority to countries, which needed it the most.
Remdesivir and steroid dexamethasone are to date the only authorised drugs to treat COVID-19 in Europe.
The EU and Britain, with a combined population of 500 million, are negotiating a contract with Gilead for the supply of new doses of the antiviral medicine, the EU spokesman said.
The first batches of the additional supply were being sent to The Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Greece, Austria, Denmark and Slovenia, he added.
Several European countries have said they were experiencing shortages of the drug, whose global stock has been secured almost entirely by the United States
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