Coronavirus Update: Is There A Drug To Treat COVID-19? Two Biotech Companies -- Gilead, Moderna Offerings Show Promise

International Business Times ^ | 02/26/2020 | By Marcy Kreiter

[SeekAndFind]

The University of Nebraska Medical Center and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases plan to conduct a clinical trial of Gilead’s experimental drug for the novel coronavirus as deaths from the outbreak lurched toward 3,000.

The drug, remdesivir, has been tested on 761 patients suffering from COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak. China’s Intellectual Property Administration said Tuesday it would release results of the trial April 27.

Remdesivir was used in the first case of COVID-19 in the U.S.

Moderna Inc. (MRNA) Monday shipped a drug – mRNA-1273 – to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for a phase one study, sending its shares higher.

World Health Organization said Monday Gilead’s drug so far holds the most promise for combatting the virus, which has led to the lockdown of millions of people in China and elsewhere as governments try to contain the spread of the infection.

Though the bulk of the infections are in China – 80,000 and climbing – outbreaks were surging in South Korea, Italy and the Middle East, stoking fears of a pandemic.

Fujifilm Holdings Corp. (FUJIY), GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) and Sanofi (SNY) also are developing treatments for the virus, which has disrupted travel and forced factory closures.

Fujifilm’s antiviral favipiravir – Avigan – which is used to treat reemergent influenza in Japan and has been used against Ebola, also is being tested in generic form in China, and the company is considering a boost in production.

Remdesivir originally was developed to combat other coronaviruses like SARS and also was tested against Ebola.

[gattaca]

bmp

[Artcore]

Try washing your hands and not picking your nose...

And in yes...GET A GRIP!

[House Atreides]

COMPETITION IS GOOD!

[G Larry]

Seeing social media indications that the old anti-malaria drug chloroquine (Aralen) may be effective against Covid-19.

Not proven. But studies of the cheap, well studied, and readily available compound are under way in China, with patients getting 400 milligrams a day for five days.

[Steely Tom]

According to Bernie, we don’t need all those drug companies, having more than one drug company wastes resources and drives up prices for consumers.

[allendale]

Notice that these drugs came from capitalistic pharmacetutal companies. So far nothing of worth from government labs. Somebody ought to ask the Democrat/Socialists where the innovations in medicine will originate if they get their way.

[JimRed]

What with the FDA bureaucracy it will take a couple of years to get a vaccine or a cure approved. By then the disease will have run its course.

[null and void]

FDA approval in 2 to 3 years...

...IF they fast track it!

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[Grampa Dave]

A very valid question with FDA: What with the FDA bureaucracy it will take a couple of years to get a vaccine or a cure approved. By then the disease will have run its course.

[MattMusson]

“It Just Doesn’t Matter! It Just Doesn’t Matter!”
Bill Murray in Meatballs.

If we have a genuine epidemic of CV - all of these antivirals will run out and making more will be impossible because the ingredients come from CHINA!

[minnesota_bound]

Just take “Thera COVID-19” and wash it down with a Corona beer.

[Redwood71]

According to WEbMd, COVID-19, the infection caused by the newly identified coronavirus, is currently a disease with no pharmaceutical weapons against it. There’s no vaccine to prevent it, and no drugs that can treat it.

It is the flu. Healthy people need not be real concerned as it can be treated with your choice of over the counter pain and fever reducing medication, lots of fluids, and rest. People like aged or sick would be at risk with any flu bug. So this one is not a lot different than previous strains except for its ability, like a few, to cause both upper and lower respiratory infections.

Every year, the CDC conducts studies about how effective the flu shot is at protecting people against the virus, but recent statistics show that the vaccine is between 40 percent and 60 percent effective in reducing the risk of flu illness. A lot of that is dependent on what your area contains. The shot the CDC puts out may cover 4 strains but 29 Flu-A strains could come through alone as they are in different parts of the country. And there are more with B and C. D is animals and doesn’t effect humans....yet.

It’s a crap shoot.

rwood

[sauropod]

.

[Luigi Vasellini]

excellent to socialist about drug manufacture