Letter to Dr. Rachel Levine, Secretary of Health - Fitzpatrick, Commissioners, State Senators, and State Representatives Fight for Local Hospital Access to Remdesivir

Letter

Dear Secretary Levine,

I am writing to you today regarding the clinical drug Remdesivir that is manufactured by Gilead Sciences, Inc. At this current moment, the Commonwealth is expecting a shipment of 30 cases of the potentially lifesaving drug, scheduled to be delivered today. As the Pennsylvania Department of Health and PEMA work to receive the drug, our hospitals are left in limbo awaiting word from the agencies whether they will be allotted a portion of the 1,200 doses from the federal stockpile.

Given this information, I ask for full transparency in the distribution of Remdesivir and kindly request full and fair consideration for the following hospitals located in Bucks and Montgomery counties:

* Lower Bucks Hospital * St. Mary's Medical Center * Doylestown Health

* Grand View Health * St. Luke's Hospital * Jefferson Health Network

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the Philadelphia region has been one of the highest impacted areas, and the Commonwealth has the 6th highest number of confirmed cases in the entire nation. Currently, Pennsylvania is slated to only receive 30 cases, so it is imperative that the hospitals that are bearing the brunt of the pandemic in southeastern Pennsylvania have access to the potentially life-saving drug to treat critically ill patients who contracted the novel coronavirus.

Given the needs of hospitals in Bucks and Montgomery Counties and southeastern Pennsylvania, I formally request that the Pennsylvania Department of Health consider distributing Remdesivir in the most transparent manner and make this drug readily available to the hospitals of southeastern Pennsylvania.

I ask for your full and fair consideration of this urgent request. If you have any questions or if I can be of any assistance, please contact my office at (215) 579-8102.