In the midst of what has now been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, the pursuit of not only a vaccine, but an outright cure, is underway.
President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence met with 7 “Big Pharma” companies to prioritize addressing the Coronavirus outbreak either through antiviral drugs or developing vaccines.1
Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and Sanofi have been encouraged to work together, however, there is no indication of collaboration as of yet. According to The Motley Fool, given the decades long interest that pharmaceutical companies have held for investors, there could be significant lucrative opportunities for some of these companies.
The leader of the pack is likely Gilead Sciences. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), this biotech giant already developed Remdesivir, a drug designed to battle the deadly Ebola virus. There is scientific basis for believing that this antiviral may be effective against COVID-19. Clinical trials on humans have begun.
The next front runners are Johnson & Johnson and Regeneron – both have been already been working on developing antiviral drugs for Ebola and MERS. As with Gilead, this research is being immediately applied to COVID-19 to develop a vaccine as well as a treatment. Additionally, both companies have been collaborating individually with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Sanofi, a French company, is working with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) of the U.S. Health Department and will be studying the application of an advanced pre-clinical vaccine candidate developed to combat SARS in the early 2000’s against novel coronavirus.2
Moderna, the smallest of the bunch, is not to be underestimated as they have plans to start testing a Coronavirus vaccine on humans next month (April 2020).
But these 7 companies are not the only kids on the block – two of the additional companies working on novel coronavirus vaccines are Inovio and Novavax.
Here is a sampling of documents from some of the companies mentioned in our blog post currently available in our RealDealDocs database:
Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Convertible Bonds Registration Rights Agreement
Johnson & Johnson
Moderna
First Quarter 2019 Financial Reports
Novavax
Sources
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1 7 Big Pharma Companies Trump Asked to Fight the Coronavirus Outbreak