Some drugs that may treat COVID-19 can be made profitably for less than $1 for a day's supply, a study cited by STAT found.
The low production costs could mean wide availability of the drugs across the globe, according to the study, published in the Journal of Virus Eradication.
Researchers found that remdesivir, Gilead's front-running drug in the race to find an effective treatment for COVID-19, can be made for 93 cents for a day's supply, and hydroxychloroquine, the drug President Donald Trump has encouraged be used to treat COVID-19, can be made for 8 cents per day.
A Gilead spokesperson told STAT it disagrees with the study, saying it doesn't "accurately reflect the true cost to manufacture remdesivir at scale."
In conducting the study, researchers relied on prices of active pharmaceutical ingredients, excipients and packaging, according to STAT, and included 10 percent profit margins for manufacturers.
The researchers recommended that if the drugs are found to be effective against COVID-19, they should be made available worldwide at prices close to production costs.
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