Coronavirus Drug Development Efforts Pick Up Amid Sell-Off

 | Mar 12, 2020 11:01PM ET

The drug/biotech sector broadly fell on Thursday due to a major market sell-off on rising concerns about the economic impact of the fast spreading coronavirus. The NYSE ARCA Pharmaceutical Index declined 7.14% on Thursday. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, a pandemic on Mar 11.

Nonetheless, drug/biotech companies’ efforts to make new antibodies, drugs, and vaccines to prevent and treat COVID-19 are in full swing.

Here are some updates from Thursday.

  • Lilly (NYSE:LLY) announced a collaboration deal with private biotech, AbCellera to co-develop antibody therapies to treat and prevent COVID-19. To develop these therapies, the companies will select from more than 500 unique antibodies identified by AbCellera and isolated from the blood sample of a U.S. COVID-19 patient who recovered from the disease. The companies will equally share initial development costs for the antibody products after which Lilly will take care of further development, manufacturing and distribution.
  • Roche (OTC:RHHBY) announced that the FDA has granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to its cobas SARS-CoV-2 test to detect virus that causes COVID-19. The test, which has not yet been approved by the FDA, can be performed on Roche’s cobas 6800/8800 systems. The test is available in markets that accept the CE mark and in areas where the SARS-CoV-2 virus is confirmed to be present. Several other biotech/drug companies are working on making treatments/vaccines to treat COVID-19.
  • Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR) signed a letter of intent with biotech giant, Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) for clinical manufacturing of human monoclonal antibodies that can bind SARS-CoV-2 virus and potentially treat COVID-19. Vir Biotechnology has identified several antibodies isolated from patients who survived SARS, another coronavirus that emerged in 2002. Biogen will conduct clinical manufacturing activities in order to advance the development of Vir’s antibodies. Vir Biotechnology’s stock was up 11.3% on Thursday in response to the news. On Wednesday, Vir Biotechnology had announced a Zacks Investment Research

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    Written By: Zacks Investment Research

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