The world is bracing for a pandemic as the novel coronavirus,
now officially known as COVID-19, threatens to spread around the
globe. In the past few months, COVID-19 has sickened more than
90,000 and killed over3,000 people. The virus has triggered a
humanitarian crisis and has sparked a patent controversy
surrounding the race for IP rights to potential COVID-19
treatments.
Remdesivir: A Promising Treatment
The World Health Organization has identified more than 70 candidate
therapeutics that are potentially worth trying as treatments
for COVID-19 infections.
A promising drug is remdesivir, a virus blocker made by Gilead
Sciences, Inc. Remdesivir was first developed for treating the
Ebola virus but clinical studies showed that it was not
particularly effective. Gilead Sciences has secured or applied for
composition of matter patents covering remdesivir and related
compounds in a large number of countries, including China (e.g.
Chinese application Nos. 107074902
