Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) announced a donation of more than 2,000 vials of remdesivir to Uganda to support the country's response to the current Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak.

The intravenous antiviral therapy is being provided under compassionate use and Monitored Emergency Use of Unregistered and Investigational Interventions frameworks. Gilead is preparing additional supply and readying support for requests from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the World Health Organization and other regional partners.

The company plans to provide both remdesivir and obeldesivir, an oral investigational antiviral agent, as part of the broader regional response to Ebola BVD, including support for planned clinical trials.

Remdesivir has demonstrated activity against multiple filoviruses in preclinical studies but has not been approved for treating filovirus disease in any country. The safety and efficacy of remdesivir for the Bundibugyo strain have not been established.

"At Gilead, we recognize the urgency and human toll of global health emergencies – and the responsibility to act quickly," said Anu Osinusi, Vice President of Clinical Development, Virology at Gilead Sciences.

Over the past decade, Gilead has supported responses to multiple filovirus outbreaks in Sub-Saharan Africa through remdesivir donations for emergency and compassionate use, as well as for clinical trials.

Remdesivir, a nucleotide analog prodrug developed by Gilead, has broad-spectrum antiviral activity against multiple viral pathogens including Marburg, Ebola, SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2. The drug has been approved as a COVID-19 treatment in approximately 50 countries and has been made available to more than 14.5 million patients worldwide.