Though there had been a number of promising initial steps, the development of vaccines remained among “the most challenging” tasks in medicine, Spahn told ARD broadcaster. “I would be happy if it succeeded in a few months,” he added, but cautioned people to remain realistic.
“It could also take years because of course there can also be setbacks, as we have seen with other vaccines.” An international donor conference today hopes to generate $8.3bn for the development of treatments and a vaccine against the virus.
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Gilead Sciences exporting Remdesivir
Chancellor Angela Merkel over the weekend promised a “significant financial contribution” from Germany, a figure DPA understands will likely lie somewhere in the hundreds of millions. Spahn said the fact that each infected person in Germany had been infecting fewer than one another person for some time now was “a good sign that together we’ve made it.” The minister also touched upon Germany’s gradual plan to lift restrictions on public life, and hinted that the government might later this week indicate a future schedule for reopening restaurants.The head of the maker of Remdesivir, an anti-viral shown to reduce recovery times in Covid-19 patients, said Sunday the company has been exporting the drug and is making it available to patients in the United States through the US government.Gilead Sciences CEO Daniel O’Day said the company is donating its entire existing supply of the drug - 1.5mn vials, enough to treat 100,000-200,000 patients. “We have been exporting for clinical trials and for compassionate use thousands of treatment courses,” O’Day said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “And our collaboration with the government has been such, we have been very transparent with them here in the United States and we have a good relationship on future allocation.”US regulators on Friday authorised the experimental drug for emergency use against Covid-19 after a major clinical trial showed it shortened the time to recovery in some coronavirus patients by a third.It is the first medicine to show beneficial results in treating Covid-19 since the new coronavirus emerged in China late last year. O’Day said the US government will determine how the drug is allocated in the United States based on where it is needed most.“They will begin shipping tens of thousands of treatment courses out early this week and adjust that as the epidemic shifts and evolves in different parts and different cities here in the United States,” he said. O’Day said there will be a significantly greater supply of Remdesivir in the second half of the year. In the meantime, the company has not been barred from exporting the drug, he said.__________________________________
