Gilead Sciences, the maker of remdesivir, has reached agreements with five generic drugmakers to produce remdesivir for 127 countries. The move comes after growing questions over the global supply of remdesivir, which has been shown to speed the recovery of some coronavirus patients.

Gilead signed agreements with manufacturers based in India and Pakistan, according to its website. The deals allow the companies to distribute the drug to mostly low-income and lower-middle income countries, according to Gilead, which said the companies can set their own prices.

The manufacturers also wouldn’t have to pay royalties to Gilead for the time being, although that would change if another drug or vaccine is approved to treat or prevent Covid-19 – or if the World Health Organization declares an end to the public health emergency of international concern.

In the US: Gilead has said it will donate its existing remdesivir supply of 1.5 million vials, enough for about 100,000 to 200,000 patients. At least 40% of that is reserved for the United States, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

While the company has said it hopes to produce a million treatment courses by the end of the year, it’s unclear how that will be distributed internationally.

In a statement, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said Gilead’s licensing agreements don’t go far enough. It noted that much of the world’s population wouldn’t be covered by the agreements, and said Gilead should “commit its patents, data and know-how to the public domain,” instead of just licensing its technology.

About the drug: In early results from a trial sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health, remdesivir was found to shorten the duration of illness in patients with severe Covid-19, but it had no statistically significant effect on whether patients died.