By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - Gilead surged in after-hours trade Thursday after its antiviral drug Veklury, or remdisivir, was approved by the Federal Food & Drug Administration to treat patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalization.
Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) rose more than 4% in after-hours trade.
The company's antiviral drug was previously authorized by the FDA for emergency use to treat COVID-19. "Veklury is now the first and only approved COVID-19 treatment in the United States. The drug is now widely available in hospitals across the country, following early investments to rapidly expand manufacturing capacity to increase supply," Gilead said.
This approval was based on trials including the recent phase 3 ACTT-1 trial, which "showed that treatment with Veklury resulted in clinically meaningful improvements across multiple outcome assessments compared with placebo in hospitalized patients with COVID-19," it added.