Drugs Or Vaccines: Which Will Be More Crucial Against Coronavirus?
Zacks Investment Research | Mar 19, 2020 08:26AM ET
Given the widespread outbreak of COVID-19, many pharma/biotech companies are joining the race for developing treatments for the same.
Per the recent results published in The New England Journal of Medicine, HIV drug, Kaletra, failed to show any benefit over standard care in adult patients with severe COVID-19 in China. The study enrolled 199 patients, with 99 receiving Kaletra and 100 receiving standard of care. The primary endpoint was the time to clinical improvement, defined as the time from randomization to either an improvement of two points on a seven-category ordinal scale or discharge from the hospital. The results come as a disappointment, given the urgent need for treating infected patients. Currently, there are no FDA-approved treatments for the severe illness caused by SARS-CoV-2. Given the alarming levels of spread and severity, some approved drugs or pipeline candidates are being tested to see if they are effective in treating the infected patients.
We note that efforts to develop a vaccine to combat this deadly virus have accelerated in the last couple of weeks. Earlier in the week, Moderna, Inc., (NASDAQ:MRNA) dosed the first participant in the phase I study of mRNA vaccine (mRNA-1273) against SARS-CoV-2. Quite a few others like Novavax, Inc. and Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. are developing vaccines to address the disease. Big pharmas like Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and GlaxoSmithKline are making efforts too to develop a vaccine.
While the successful development of a vaccine will prevent infection and stop the virus from spreading further, there is a greater need for drugs/treatments for infected patients. Also, the development of a vaccine will require a longer timeframe. Hence, we take a look at companies, which are working on drugs/treatments to combat this disease as the number of infected patients is growing with each passing day.
The company pioneering the race is Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) , which has initiated two phase III studies to evaluate the safety and efficacy of remdesivir in adults diagnosed with COVID-19. These randomized, open-label, multicenter studies will enroll approximately 1,000 patients at medical centers primarily across Asian countries. The studies will assess two dosing durations of the candidate, administered intravenously. Reportedly, remdesivir is already being used in the United States for the treatment of the disease under federal rules that allow the use of unapproved drugs on compassionate grounds. The candidate was previously under testing for Ebola virus. As the candidate has shown promising results in the infected patients, investors are banking on Gilead for being the first company to come up with a treatment for this deadly disease.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:REGN) too has Zacks Investment Research
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