The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Saturday that Michigan is one of six states that will receive an allocation of the coronavirus drug remdesivir.
Starting on Thursday night, cases of the drug were sent out for delivery to Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan and New Jersey. Michigan will receive 40 cases, and each case contains 40 vials of the drug.
The cases of remdesivir were donated by Gilead Sciences, Inc. to the United States.
The FDA allowed the emergency use of remdesivir for COVID-19 in patients in the hospital after a study found it can shorten the recovery time by 31%.
It is the first drug shown to help fight COVID-19, but it will still need formal approval from the FDA after additional studies prove its safety and effectiveness.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human will distribute the doses to hospitals in the state.
The producer of the drug, Gilead Sciences, Inc., is donating 1.5 million vials of remdesivir to hospitalized COVID-19 patients around the world. Cases have already been delivered to Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Virginia.
As of Saturday, Michigan reported 46,756 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 1,531 people hospitalized because of the virus.
The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.
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