Investors cheered the news because there are currently no treatments approved by the FDA for treating coronavirus. Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner, told CNN Business the Gilead treatment is an "important start" in the fight against coronavirus. The company said the study demonstrated patients receiving a 10-day treatment course of the drug "achieved similar improvement in clinical status" compared with those taking a five-day treatment. US stocks soared on April 17 on a report about positive signs for the Gilead drug. Still, SunTrust ran an analysis assuming remdesivir is the only treatment and is used to treat 250,000 patients a year, costing $10,000 for a 10-day treatment.

Source: CNN April 29, 2020 13:32 UTC