On October 22, 2020, the FDA approved Veklury® (remdesivir) for use in adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older and weighing at least 40 kilograms (about 88 pounds) for the treatment of COVID-19 requiring hospitalization.

On January 21, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted expedited approval of a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) for Veklury® (remdesivir) for the treatment of non-hospitalized adult and adolescent patients who are at high risk of progression to severe COVID-19. The FDA further expanded the emergency use authorization for Remdesivir to include treatment of non-hospitalized pediatric patients at high risk.

FDA approval is not the whole story. The National Institutes for Health (NIH recommends remdesivir a treatment of hospitalized adults with COVID-19 who require supplemental oxygen or display a high risk of disease progression.

Furthermore, the National Institutes for Health (NIH) recommends Remdesivir for non-hospitalized patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk of disease progression.

In my research, I discovered something quite disturbing. The recommendation from the NIH to use Veklury® (remdesivir) to treat COVID-19 came from the NIH Panel on COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines.   There were nine (9) people on the NIH Panel on COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines with financial ties to Gilead Sciences, the maker of Veklury® (remdesivir).