Q: Recently there was some reporting that China''s Wuhan VirologyInstitute together with the Chinese Military Academy, they appliedfor the patent of Remdesivir. So obviously this is a delicatebalance between fighting the epidemic, saving lives, vs IPprotection question. So it''s a little bit probably delicate. But I do want to know what is Gilead''s reaction to the applicationand what''s Gilead''s stance if China''s IP authority approves thisapplication, and how we''re going to continue to manage the controlof Remdesivir development and also retaining the right to helpfighting the epidemic.
A: Thank you so much. It''s a very relevant question. And obviously it just came out overnight, and like everything withregard to Remdesivir, ah, you know we are moving as quickly as wecan. I think my message to you and everybody is that has noimpact on what we are going to do with global health. I justwant to be tremendously clear here that our responsibility is thepatients. And our responsibility is number one: pursue the rightclinical programs to determine whether or not this medicine hasimpact with patients or not, and it''ll be driven by the science, bythe clinical evidence. And at the same time, ramping ourproduction up, in the event that it does, we can get this medicineto as many patients around the globe as needed. Patent is notat the forefront of our minds. I will say, ‘cause I checkedwith our patent colleagues, that as we would with any medicine atGilead, we have patents on Remdesivir, not only for the compound,but also for all of its use including coronavirus in regions aroundthe world. But we will not get into a patent dispute, we willfind a way to help patients, and of course, we will protect ourintellectual property as a separate step of the process. Butpatients first.
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