Trump’s actions over coronavirus treatment put the whole world at risk

If countries tear up intellectual property rights in response to America’s cornering the market for a proven treatment, it could call into question future drug development. But you can hardly blame them, writes James Moore

Gilead: the developer of a treatment for Covid-19 (AFP/Getty)

You do sometimes wonder whether Donald Trump sits in his PJs and, after he’s finished his nightly Twitter rant, says to himself: “I wonder how I can screw up the world tomorrow.”

When it comes to coronavirus he’s found what the Americans would describe as “a doozy”. It has emerged that the US is gobbling up the world stock of remdesivir, a relative rarity in the pharmaceutical world in that it can have a beneficial impact on Covid-19 and is licensed for treatment. The US Department of Health and Human Services says its secured 500,000 doses, which accounts for all of July’s production and 90 per cent of August and September’s.

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