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US monopolises Remdesivir supplies

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2020 9:36 pm
by bjn
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/20 ... id-19-drug

They’ve bought up the next 3 months supplies, bastards.

Re: US monopolises Remdesivir supplies

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 8:38 am
by EllyCat
In fairness, they’re probably going to have the most cases in the next three months. They’re still a bunch of bastards.

It’d be ridiculous and paranoid of me to suggest that failing to control the outbreak was a play to deliver enormous profits to US medical/insurance companies, at the cost of American lives...wouldn’t it?

Re: US monopolises Remdesivir supplies

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 9:53 am
by Bird on a Fire
EllyCat wrote:
Wed Jul 01, 2020 8:38 am
It’d be ridiculous and paranoid of me to suggest that failing to control the outbreak was a play to deliver enormous profits to US medical/insurance companies, at the cost of American lives...wouldn’t it?
I don't think it's ridiculous and paranoid, though I'm also not sure that's necessarily what's happened. I'd be interested to see figures on the sector's profits recently - I suspect that the wider economic damage, layoffs, recession etc will also hurt those sectors in a fairly foreseeable way.

Re: US monopolises Remdesivir supplies

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 11:12 am
by FlammableFlower
Speaking to students on placement, pretty much all of the chemical industry continued in various forms with being classed as "essential" - including AkzoNobel and the paints and coatings required for tinned food.

Re: US monopolises Remdesivir supplies

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 11:32 am
by FlammableFlower
Arse to make

tl:dr - overall yield ~0.5%, requires TMScyanide, BuLi, BCl3, low temps, late-stage chiral HPLC and a final chiral resolution.

stl:dr - nasty chemicals, rubbish conditions, throw lots of stuff away, end up with bugger all.

sstl:dr - it's an arse to make enough

ETA - the site that hosts that article is very... scrutable... very us.

Re: US monopolises Remdesivir supplies

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 8:15 pm
by Woodchopper
bjn wrote:
Tue Jun 30, 2020 9:36 pm
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/20 ... id-19-drug

They’ve bought up the next 3 months supplies, bastards.
Probably an act of desperation. They've given up on trying to prevent infections and are just going to treat as many people as they can.

Re: US monopolises Remdesivir supplies

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2020 7:22 am
by plodder
I agree, it’s a big showy gesture that says the Pres means business. It’s a silly approach though, because presumably demand will quickly outstrip supply?

Re: US monopolises Remdesivir supplies

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2020 8:41 am
by Martin Y
plodder wrote:
Thu Jul 02, 2020 7:22 am
I agree, it’s a big showy gesture that says the Pres means business. It’s a silly approach though, because presumably demand will quickly outstrip supply?
"America first" was Trump's slogan. Seems like that's all this is.

Re: US monopolises Remdesivir supplies

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2020 9:51 pm
by sTeamTraen
FlammableFlower wrote:
Wed Jul 01, 2020 11:32 am
Arse to make
Is it any good? The skeptical people I follow have been suggesting that it's a bit like tamiflu: Small reduction in recovery time but hardly a miracle, and very expensive. Dexomethasone seems to be more in favour, although whether that's because its application to COVID-19 is a British discovery I don't know (I try to follow a fairly international crowd).

I imagine that unlike hydroxycholoroquine, which costs something like 10p a tablet, if it turns out that any major US politicians have shares in Gilead there will be quite a ruckus. (Someone found out that Trump's family trust owns about $150 worth of Sanofi shares and tried to make out that that was his reason for pushing it.)

Re: US monopolises Remdesivir supplies

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2020 10:32 pm
by FlammableFlower
sTeamTraen wrote:
Thu Jul 02, 2020 9:51 pm
FlammableFlower wrote:
Wed Jul 01, 2020 11:32 am
Arse to make
Is it any good? The skeptical people I follow have been suggesting that it's a bit like tamiflu: Small reduction in recovery time but hardly a miracle, and very expensive. Dexomethasone seems to be more in favour, although whether that's because its application to COVID-19 is a British discovery I don't know (I try to follow a fairly international crowd).

I imagine that unlike hydroxycholoroquine, which costs something like 10p a tablet, if it turns out that any major US politicians have shares in Gilead there will be quite a ruckus. (Someone found out that Trump's family trust owns about $150 worth of Sanofi shares and tried to make out that that was his reason for pushing it.)
I'm with the skeptical people on this one - as far as I can tell, very much like tamiflu.

As an aside, tamiflus costs should at some point come down as the original 12-step synthesis from shikimic acid (isolated from star anise, not in massive quantities and reliant on levels of crop production) has come down to a 6-step synthesis from more reliable sources, although I don't know if that's got into process-level stages.

Re: US monopolises Remdesivir supplies

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 9:52 pm
by EACLucifer
EllyCat wrote:
Wed Jul 01, 2020 8:38 am
It’d be ridiculous and paranoid of me to suggest that failing to control the outbreak was a play to deliver enormous profits to US medical/insurance companies, at the cost of American lives...wouldn’t it?
As I understand it, there's a lot of medical companies actually struggling because of the virus, because it is shutting down other, more profitable work. Likewise, the oligarchs doing well with Trump at the helm would do rather better if he were to remain there, and the senate stay red. An uncontrolled pandemic makes that rather less likely.

Re: US monopolises Remdesivir supplies

Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2020 6:14 pm
by EllyCat
EACLucifer wrote:
Fri Jul 03, 2020 9:52 pm
EllyCat wrote:
Wed Jul 01, 2020 8:38 am
It’d be ridiculous and paranoid of me to suggest that failing to control the outbreak was a play to deliver enormous profits to US medical/insurance companies, at the cost of American lives...wouldn’t it?
As I understand it, there's a lot of medical companies actually struggling because of the virus, because it is shutting down other, more profitable work. Likewise, the oligarchs doing well with Trump at the helm would do rather better if he were to remain there, and the senate stay red. An uncontrolled pandemic makes that rather less likely.
I don’t trust the US to do anything for moral reasons, but I absolutely trust them to follow the money. So it’s a cock up rather than conspiracy. Good good*.