Gilead suspends access to experimental COVID-19 drug due to "overwhelming demand"

The company said in a statement that it is focused on processing previously approved requests, and that it is developing a new system that it says will allow patients to get the drug in a similar timeframe to what it would have taken to work through the requests it has received.

It will make exceptions for pregnant women and children under 18 years of age with confirmed Covid-19 and “severe manifestations” of the disease.

Remdesivir is being studied in five large clinical trials, two of which could read out results in early April.