A lawyer on Wednesday, April 28, challenged Health Secretary Francisco Duque to recommend the imposition of price caps on Remdesivir if he is convinced that the World Health Organization was wrong in declaring the reported anti-coronavirus disease (COVID-19) drug as “ineffective” against the deadly ailment.
Lawyer Larry Gadon aired the challenge even as he prepared for the filing of criminal complaints against pharmaceutical firms, distributors and retailers of Remdesivir that have taken advantage of the current pandemic to overprice the drug.
Gadon, together with House Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta (1SAGIP Partylist) and Rep. Michael Defensor (Anakalusugan Partylist), has started gathering evidence to support the filing of charges.
He urged COVID 19 patients who were injected with doses of Remdesivir to present to them evidences on the use of the alleged COVID-19 drug.
“In the meantime, if Secretary Duque is truly convinced Remdesivir is effective against the virus, I dare him to recommend to President Duterte the imposition of price control on this solution,” said Gadon.
In a virtual press conference the other day, Marcoleta and Defensor slammed the DOH and certain hospitals for recommending or for prescribing the use of Remdesivir for COVID-19 patients notwithstanding WHO”s statement on the medicine issued last November, 2020. Last year, WHO issued a conditional recommendation against the use of Remdesivir in “hospitalized patients, regardless of disease severity.” When it issued the recommendation on November, 2020, WHO said there remained “no evidence that Remdesivir improves survival and other outcomes in these patients”.
‘A conditional recommendation is issued when the evidence around the benefits and risks of an intervention are less certain. Int this case, there is a conditional recommendation against the use of Remdesivir. This means that there isn’t enough evidence to support its use,” the WHO press statement said.
Despite the WHO warning, the DOH and the Food and Drugs Administration did not do anything to call the attention of hospitals and doctors against prescribing Remdesivir, said Gadon.
“Right now, COVID-19 patients, including those dying from the disease, are being taken advantage of by certain hospitals and doctors who prescribe overpriced Remdesivir,” he noted.
Remdesivir pricing has been bloated from P3,000 to P5,000 per shot to as high as P12,000 to P27,000.
“Together with Deputy Speaker Marcoleta and Rep. Defensor, we intend to file cases against those who took advantage of COVID019 victims and this could implicate DOH, FDA officials and even hospital administrators,” Gadon vowed.