Gilead Sciences announced it is voluntarily recalling two lots of its injectable COVID treatment, Veklury (remdesivir), following a customer complaint, confirmed by the firm’s investigation, of the presence of glass particulates.
The recall involves 55,000 vials of the drug, or enough to treat 11,000 hospitalized patients, a Gilead spokesperson told Bloomberg. It only affects the U.S. market.
While Gilead said that it had received no reports of adverse events linked to the recall, the company warns that if injected glass particulate reaches the blood vessels it can travel to various organs and block blood vessels in the heart, lungs or brain which can cause stroke and even lead to death.
Veklury, approved by the U.S. FDA in Oct 2020, is used in more than half of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Gilead recently posted an analysis suggesting that the treatment will continue to be effective against the Omicron variant.
