Gilead CEO: Remdesivir available to coronavirus patients this week, ‘We’ve donated the entire supply’

Ross J Burland FXStreet

CNBC reports that Gilead’s antiviral drug, remdesivir, has shown success in helping coronavirus patients recover faster.

Gilead Sciences’ coronavirus fighting drug will be in the hands of doctors and patients as early as this week, the biotechnology company’s CEO said Sunday,

– CNBC reports.

Key notes

“We intend to get [remdesivir] to patients in the early part of this next week, beginning to work with the government which will determine which cities are most vulnerable and where the patients are that need this medicine,” Gilead Sciences chairman and CEO Daniel O’Day told CBS’ “Face of the Nation.”
Gilead Sciences donated its entire supply of the drug to the US government.
“We’ve donated the entire supply that we have within our supply chain and we did that because we acknowledge and recognize the human suffering, the human need here, and want to make sure nothing gets in the way of this getting to patients,” O’Day added.

Market implications

Some good news from a weekend of risk-off headlines could help to balance the start of the week's fundamental drivers:

CNBC reports that "Gilead released preliminary results from its clinical trial on its antiviral drug remdesivir last week, showing at least 50% of the COVID-19 patients treated with a five-day dosage of the drug improved. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases then released a study that showed Covid-19 patients who took remdesivir usually recovered after 11 days, four days faster than those who didn’t take the drug."

Taking AUD/JPY, the FX space's risk barometer, the cross is in a precarious area structurally on the charts and is ripe for a major sell-off on souring geopolitical news. While the remdesivir story is positive markets, it likely doesn't balance out a far greater risk to global markets which should dictate the flow of money on a longer-term outlook – trade wars are back on the market's agenda.

More on that here: What you need to know as markets open: Pompeo and Trump ratcheted up US and China tensions and Forex Today: Slow start to another busy week

Author

Ross J Burland

FXStreet

Ross J Burland, born in England, UK, is a sportsman at heart. He played Rugby and Judo for his county, Kent and the South East of England Rugby team.

AUD/USD: The 0.7000 level holds the downside…for now

AUD/USD has clinched its fourth consecutive daily pullback on Thursday, coming closer to the key 0.7000 region while breaking below the critical 200-day SMA at the same time. The Aussie’s decline comes on the back of further gains in the Greenback in a context of rising yields and Fed rate hike bets.

USD/JPY keeps the red near 158.00 as Japanese Yen firms up

USD/JPY retreats from three-week highs and holds losses near 158.00 in the Asian session on Thursday. Surging Japanese bond yields lift the Yen amid looming intervention risks, while the US Dollar preserves overnight gains to a two-month high amid hawkish Fed bets and elevated US bond yields.

Gold bounces off lows, still below $4,300

Gold builds on Wednesday’s retracement, briefly slipping back below $4,250 per troy ounce to attempt a lacklustre rebound afterwards. The better tone in the US Dollar, rising US Treasury yields and expectation of extra rate hikes by the Fed continue to weigh on the precious metal in the latter part of Thursday’s NA session.

XRP is flashing three bullish signals heading into a historically weak October

XRP (XRP) is still flashing 3 bullish signals across its holders, derivatives, and ETF data. These signals come as the token gave back part of its September gains on Thursday. The token traded near $1.50 at press time, down about 6.3% over 24 hours, according to BeInCrypto Markets data. The pullback still leaves XRP up over 15.6% on the week, a gain that tracks a broader market rally.

Advanced economies: From one example of resilience to another

History tends to repeat itself in advanced economies. Once again, growth ultimately fell short of expectations by only a small margin in the first half of 2026, despite the conflict in Iran. As early as 2025, the impact of tariffs was less severe than feared.

BoJ Recap: Not as hawkish as expected

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) raised its short-term interest-rate target to 1.25% from 1.00% in a 7-2 vote, marking another step in the normalisation of monetary policy and widely matching what everyone has been expecting for weeks.