The Swiss pharmacist Cédric Wernli from Basel now offers extemporaneously produced GS-441524 on veterinary prescription for the oral treatment of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) in cats. Although a licence for the active substance of the human antiviral remdesivir is owned by the US Gilead company, no veterinary licence currently exists. This has led to a flourishing black market with desperate cat owners importing the product from China and other Third countries – without quality control.
Switzerland: GS-441524 ‘by way of exception’
Cédric Wernli now produces oral GS-441524 (with “chicken pot pie” flavour), opening up a legal route for Swiss veterinarians to treat FIP. If there is an effective treatment against a potentially fatal disease and no equivalent medicine is available, active substances can be used by way of exception, the Swiss Veterinary and Food Safety Agency BLV confirms. ‘As long as the dispensing of extemporaneously produced drugs is limited to direct clients of the pharmacist, vets can order small quantities for the treatment of their own clients only.’
Italy: yes to remdesivir, no to GS-441524
In Italy, the authorities opt for a stricter interpretation of the cascade law. ‘In compliance with the principle of the cascade, the Ministry of Health allows vets to prescribe and use Veklury°, the human prodrug containing remdesivir, which, after administration to the cat, is converted into GS-441524. And since Veklury° is on the market for humans, this is ‘the only legally available therapy’ according to Italian authorities. Veklury° only exists in injectable form.
And elsewhere in Europe?
Extemporaneously prepared GS-441524 for the treatment of FIP is legally available to vets in several European countries, including the UK, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.
(photo © Daga Roszkowska/Pixabay)