Taipei, Aug. 3 (CNA) Taiwan has a sufficient stock of the promising COVID-19 drug remdesivir and has found an alternative to the drug if needed, CECC spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said Monday.

Chuang was responding to concerns that Taiwan may not have access to adequate supplies of remdesivir because the United States has bought almost the entire supply of the drug, made by American biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, Inc., from July to September.

Taiwan currently has 328 doses of remdesivir, which are enough to treat about 54 patients with severe COVID-19 infection, Chuang said.

Statistics show critically ill COVID-19 patients account for about 8 percent of the total number, meaning the 328 doses in stock would be used up after Taiwan reports about 540 COVID-19 cases or a large-scale community outbreak.

To date, Taiwan has recorded 475 COVID-19 cases, with seven deaths. Twenty-seven of the patients are still being treated in hospitals, according to the CECC.

Even if remdesivir were hard to come by, the widely available steroid called dexamethasone was recently shown in an international study to reduce the mortality rate for patients with severe COVID-19 who are already on oxygen or ventilator support, Chuang said.

The CECC will convene an expert meeting Tuesday to discuss whether to include dexamethasone on its list of recommended treatments for COVID-19, Chuang said.

Taiwan has ordered enough doses of remdesivir for 1,000 patients, but had hoped for delivery by the end of July, said Chang Lien-cheng, the head of the division of medicinal products at the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration.

Gilead's Taiwan branch is waiting for about 2,000 doses of remdesivir, but only 78 doses arrived in July, according to Chang.

According to news reports, the U.S. government announced in late June it would buy 500,000 doses of remdesivir for use in American hospitals, which is almost all of Gilead's projected production capacity for remdesivir from July to September.

It is still uncertain how many doses Gilead's Taiwan branch will be able to secure and whether the U.S.'s order will affect remdesivir imports to Taiwan, Chang said.

Taiwan's health authorities approved the use of remdesivir as a possible treatment in May.