Some British experts have slammed the US decision to snap up nearly the entire global supply of remdesivir, the only drug licensed so far to treat COVID-19. The US government announced Tuesday that Donald Trump had struck “an amazing deal” to buy the remdesivir drug for Americans.

The Department of Health and Human Services said they have secured 500,000 treatments of the drug through September, representing 100% of Gilead Sciences’ July production capacity and 90 percent of its capacity in August and September.

Gilead has a patent on remdesivir, making it the only company able to manufacture the drug. That effectively means any other country that wants it may have to wait until at least September to obtain it.

A senior lecturer at the University of Sussex called it “disappointing news.”

“It so clearly signals an unwillingness to co-operate with other countries and the chilling effect this has on international agreements about intellectual property rights,” said Ohid Yaqub.

The drug remdesivir will cost $2,340 per patient in the US. The 250,000 treatment courses that the company had donated to the US and other countries to trial will run out in about a week, and the prices will apply to the drug after that.

Just this morning, America’s top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said Trump should share  remdesivir with the world.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says he is in favour of an ‘equitable type of distribution’ of the treatment – one of only two drugs proven to be effective against Covid-19.

Health Canada has approved two clinical trials of the drug for use against COVID-19, and is currently reviewing Gilead’s application to authorize remdesivir for treatment of the disease. It has yet to be approved or given emergency authorization in Canada.