The pandemic outbreak of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is spreading rapidly worldwide, which has had a tremendous impact on all of our lives. As of March 31, 2020, the outbreak affected more than 202 countries, areas and territories around the world with over 754,948 cases and 36,571 deaths according to the World Health Organization (WHO) (1). Alongside its human impact and the economic downfall caused by its spread, COVID-19 is having a growing impact on the global pharmaceutical industry.
Given the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, a unifying voice has been heard from small and big pharma alike. Pharma and biotech companies from across the globe have all laid focus on both therapeutic and preventative medicines to combat the COVID-19. Many companies aggressively searching for a vaccine are testing their own active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) in an attempt to fast track through to clinical trials. The efforts of the world pharmaceutical response fall into two broad categories: therapeutic medicines to treat those already affected by COVID-19 and preventative vaccines to halt the transmission and susceptibility to the virus.
Therapeutics
Currently, two medicines are approved for emergency treatment of COVID-19: Chloroquine and Favilavir. (2) While the overall response and long-term benefits of these drugs are not known, the initial results appear promising for those who are already infected and in need of urgent intervention. Initial inquiries into the use of Remdesivir (Gilead Sciences) and several anti-viral /HIV drugs are looking promising. To date, there are at least 29 companies are working on COVID-19 medication, ranging from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Gilead, Eli Lilly and Co., and AbbVie to small biotechs and even some universities (2-3). The soonest any trial might see significant result would be China’s study of Actmetra (Roche) which is expected to provide results by the middle of May 2020. (4)
While the majority of these therapeutics are already established anti-viral APIs, the most promising appear to be Remdesivir (anti-Ebola) and Chloroquine (anti-Malaria) in the United States as trials are set to be underway on these medications. On March 30, 2020 Novartis committed to deliver 20,000 doses of hydroxychloroquine to the University of Washington to aid in a 2,000 patient COVID-19 study. (3) Furthermore, 30 million doses have been supplied to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for controlled clinical studies and 130 million doses worldwide. Johnson & Johnson recently worked out a $1 billion deal with BARDA to produce a vaccine suggesting clinical trials will begin September of 2020. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also greenlighted plasma therapy for the treatment of COVID-19. Meanwhile, Japan is preparing mass quantities of Fujifilm’s Avigan (Flu) drug after the Japanese government expressed support for its use as a potential treatment in one China’s clinical trials. Along with Roche’s Actmetra drug which is currently slated for a 188-person study ending around May 10, 2020. (4)
Preventative
While many companies are searching for a cure for those already infected, at least 25 companies are working on vaccines to prevent the transmission of the virus. (2) While not immediate, many of these developing APIs are already being fast-tracked for clinical trials with the hope that a viable vaccine could be supplied to the general public within the next 18 months. Some of these compounds includes:
Fusogenix DNA vaccine (Entos Pharmaceuticals)
Gimsilumab (Roivant Sciences)
ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (University of Oxford)
AdCOVID (Altimmune along with the University of Alabama Birmingham-UAB)
Coronavirus vaccine (Medicago)
and many more. (2)
From universities to large hospital medical supply companies, all of the research comes down to a collaborative effort for basic science and pharmaceutical information.
From universities to large pharma, all of the research comes down to a collaboration for scientific and pharmaceutical infor...
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