<Current situation of COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic>

The table below is All cases and Deaths in the world. (Last update : Sep 3 2020)
Rank Country Total Cases New Cases Total Deaths New Deaths
0 World 26,169,102 285,096 866,576 6,278
1 USA 6,290,322 40,796 189,936 1,062
2 Brazil 4,001,422 48,632 123,899 1,218
3 India 3,848,968 82,860 67,486 1,026
4 Russia 1,005,000 4,952 17,414 115
5 Peru 663,437 6,308 29,259 191
6 Colombia 633,339 9,270 20,348 296
7 South Africa 630,595 2,336 14,389 126
8 Mexico 606,036 6,476 65,241 827
9 Spain 479,554 8,581 29,194 42
10 Argentina 439,172 10,933 9,118 199
11 Chile 414,739 1,594 11,344 23
12 Iran 378,752 1,858 21,797 125
13 UK 338,676 1,508 41,514 10
14 Bangladesh 317,528 2,582 4,351 35
15 Saudi Arabia 317,486 816 3,956 27
16 Pakistan 296,590 441 6,318 20
17 France 293,024 7,017 30,686 25
18 Turkey 273,301 1,596 6,462 45
19 Italy 271,515 1,326 35,497 6
20 Germany 247,391 1,390 9,393 12

It has already been over half a year since Coronavirus (COVID-19) occurred. When hearing the news that the number of confirmed new cases has decreased, I feel good. However I might spend each day with heavy feeling, thinking about when COVID-19 will end when heard the number of confirmed new cases has increased again.

There were a total of 26,169,102 infected cases of COVID19 worldwide, and the total death from COVID19 is 866,576 cases and the death/Case ratio(mortality rate) is 3.3%. The 3.3% mortality rate is higher than the Spanish Flu which recorded 2% mortality rate. 3.3% is a number that reminds us that COVID-19 is a deadly disease for us. 

Russia has recently surpassed 1 million cases and as a result of this, there are four countries in the world with more than 1 million cases of COVID-19 : the United States, Brazil, India and Russia. The total number of cases in the top four countires is 15,145,712 cases accounting for approximately 58% of the total worldwide.

Coronavirus is currently spreading mainly in South America except the top 4 countries. In Europe, cases of COVID19 are rapidly increasing after the holiday season, putting Europe again into fear of the Coronavirus.

Although not revealed in statistics, cases are increasing again in some Asian countries such as South Korea and Singapore, which are evaluated as relatively good in quarantine against COVID-19.

<What is Remdesivir?>

Remdesivir is an antiviral drug for treatment of Ebolavirus developed by Gilead Sciences, an American pharmaceutical company that developed Tamiflu few decades ago. It is one of the products that are being discussed as a treatment for COVID19 along with Chloroquine, Kaletra(Lopinavir&Ritonavir), and Avigan(Favipiravir). 

As I just said, Remdesivir was originally developed to treat Ebolavirus(Filoviridae), but Remdesivir was discarded due to lack of effectiveness in the final phase (Clinical trial 3) of new drug development in 2018.

However, the clinical procedure targeting COVID-19 was resumed because many results demonstrated that Remdesivir is effective in relation to COVID-19. and FDA urgently approved the use of remdesivir for severe patients with COVID-19 on May 1, 2020.

Also recently Remdesivir has been approved as the first drug for COVID19 treatment by NIH in the United States through clinical trial.

<Patent of Remdesivir>

The patent related to Remdesivir can be found as "Methods for tearting filoviridae virus infections" , (Patent : US 9724360 B2) . Here the filoviridae viruse means Ebolavirus among RNA based viruses such as COVID19.

Remdesivir's IUPAC, CAS No. and Molecular formula are the same as below

Remdesivir IUPAC : 2-ethylbutyl (2S)-2-[[[(2R,3S,4R,5R)-5-(4-aminopyrrolo[2,1-f][1,2,4]triazin-7-yl)-5-cyano-3,4-dihydroxyoxolan-2-yl]methoxy-phenoxyphosphoryl]amino]propanoate
Remdesivir Cas No. : 1809249-37-3
Remdesivir Molecular Formula : C27H35N6O8P

<Remdesivir mode of action>

The reason Remdesivir is effective against COVID-19 is that Remdesivir is a prodrug of adenosine triphosphate(ATP) analogue that has antiviral activity against various RND viruses. For viruses nucleotide is essential to multiply, but Remdesivir supplies nucleotide analogue, which is a fake nucleotide, interfering with the virus's synthesis of RNA, amking the cloned virus unable to function.

To put it a little bit easier, Remdesivir binds to the viral gene and inhibits the COVID-19 virus from continuing to replicate and multiply in our body, which speeds up the recovery of confirmed patients and reduces the number of cases infecting to others.

<Patent Controversy of Remdesivir in China>

Remdesivir was applied as a patent at the time it was developed as an Ebolavirus treatment, but Gilead Sciences seems to have a strategy to secure a wide range of patents by applying for PCT(Patent cooperation Treaty) for this treatment technology from the beginning. And this patent has actually been applied in 38 countries, which have family patents.

Among the family patents in 38 countries, let's look at the status of registration of Remdesivir patents in major countries.

Country

Application No.

Status

Registered Patent No.

Korea

10-2017-7014042

Registered

10-1822348

Japan

2017-520938

Registered

6220484

Europe

2015-797205

Registered

3212174

China

2015-80059611

Under Review

-

Taiwan

2015135247

Registered

I687432

Australia

2015-339223

Registered

2015339223

Patent registrations have been completed in the US, Korea, Japan, Europe, Taiwan, and Australia. But China is still under review. The substantial review began on Sep 12, 2017. Although it has been 3 years since the review has started, but registration has not been decided yet. There is a statistics that the average review period for Chinese patents in 2019 is 22.7 Months, and it shows that Remdesivir's review period is even longer than the average period of registration in China.

The below is history of Remdesivir patent registration process
On Mar 6 2019, Nov 5 2019, and finally, May 25 2020, three notifications for submission of opinions were issued. The contents of the notification says that registration is still under review due to the lack of inventive step(Progressiveness). However the cited invention is Gilead's own patent filed on July 22 2011. Looking at the time when the last notification was issued, it seems that it will still take more time for the final review.

We are curious about the fate of the Remdesivir patent in China. Patents in other countries have been registered, but not in China yet. However, in light of the patent situation in other countries, it seems difficult for China to ignore Gilead's right.

What if Gilead fails to register Remdesivir's patent in China?
Recently, Brightgene Biomedical Technology, a Chinese pharmaceutical company, announced mass production of Remdesivir, saying that it developed a successful synthesis technology for Remdesivir API. (Currently, Gilead has threatened Brightgene with filing an enormous patent lawsuit. If the patent is not registered in China, Brightgene can manufacture Remdesivir without any patent problems and it is free from royalties to Gilead.

Thank you