As health experts continue to explore potential coronavirus treatments, former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is expressing his belief there needs to be an efficient way of distributing those treatments.
CBS’s Margaret Brennan signaled the rollout of the drug Remdesivir was “chaotic” and asked Gottlieb what this could mean for the rollout of future treatments or vaccines.
“Well look, I think we need to get a better system in place,” Gottlieb said.
He added, “If the government is going to take control of the supply of these kinds of therapeutics, and they don’t necessarily have to do that, they chose to do that, they need to have a good system in place for allocation.”
Check out his comments below:
.@ScottGottliebMD on administration's roll out of #Remdesivir:
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) May 10, 2020
"I think we need to get a better system in place. If the government is going to take control of the supply of these therapeutics…they need to have a good system in place for allocation," he tells @margbrennan pic.twitter.com/RC0ANlDO3Z
On Friday, the White House reported Dr. Deborah Birx, a leading health expert and member of the White House coronavirus task force, would be leading the charge on how Remdesivir would be distributed to hospitals, as IJR previously reported.
“She’s the person who’s constantly reviewing the numbers, constantly reviewing the data,” White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said. “She really has the best grasp as to how that should be distributed.”
As the government began to distribute the drug last week, some doctors became concerned when their requests to acquire the treatment were denied.
One physician group sought an explanation from the Trump administration on how the drug would be distributed equally among states and hospitals based on the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalization rates.
Remdesivir was shown to speed up recovery times of those infected with the coronavirus.
The United States continues to see a rise in confirmed coronavirus cases. As of Sunday afternoon, there are more than 1,000,000 coronavirus cases and more than 71,000 deaths.
According to Birx, CDC guidelines for reopening are “still being worked on,” as IJR previously reported.