There are more than 80 clinical trials underway worldwide to test new and existing medicines to either treat or innoculate aginst SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19), according to the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations.Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are leveraging existing development platforms and regulatory agencies internationally are accelerating review of the most promising agents as they work to balance speed with scientific rigor.Below we highlight the status of 10 of the 80+ research programs racing against the spread of the disease and offer links to more comprehensive reviews.
Gilead Sciences. Remdesivir is being studied in 5 clinical trials worldwide on FDA fast-track and has been administered through FDA’s compassionate use program; 1000 patients with COVID-19 recruited in China to test whether multiple doses can reverse infection. Read more.
Moderna Therapeutics. mRNA-1273 is the vaccine candidate identified shortly after the coronavirus was sequenced. Joint healthy-volunteer study with NIH is currently determining mRNA-1273 safety. Read more.
Inovio Pharmaceuticals. Inovio already has a MERS vaccine, INO-4700, which has shown in clinical tests to be effective in treating patient symptoms. Phase1 clinical trials of INO-4800 are planned for April with testing on volunteers at the University of Pennsylvania and a testing center in Missouri. Read more.
Ascletis Pharma. Danoprevir/ritonavir has been studied in 11 people in China with COVID-19-caused pneumonia admitted to the hospital. All have been released having met discharge standards for the infection established by he National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China. Read more.
CanSino Biologics. The recombinant novel coronavirus vaccine (adenovirus type 5 vector) has just been approved by Chinese authorities for planned clinical trial. Results from preclinical animal studies of Ad5-nCoV demonstrated strong immune response in animal models and demonstrated a good safety profile. Read more.
Arcturus Therapeutics. Arcturus Therapeutics is working with Duke University on its recombinant novel coronavirus vaccine that will use liquid nanoparticle technology. Human trials will begin as quickly as possible. Read more.
BioNTech. The German company has plans to enter clinical testing with its mRNA contender in April.
BioNTech has signed a deal with Fosun Pharma (Shanghai) to market the vaccine in China and Pfizer plans to co-develop the drug in the rest of the world. Read more.
I-Mab Biopharma. TJM2 is a neutralizing antibody that treats cytokine storm in patients suffering from a severe case of COVID-19. TJM2 targets human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, which is responsible for acute and chronic inflammation. Read more.
Eli Lilly. Lilly’s Canadian partner AbCellera identified >500 antibodies in a blood sample from a COVID-19 survivor that could be protective. AbCellra will collaborate with the Vaccine Research Center at the NIH’s NIAID to identify candidate antibody sequences. Read more.
Takeda. The TAK-888 hyperimmune globulin (H-IG) therapy will be designed to treat high-risk patients; the therapy includes concentrated pathogen-specific antibodies derived from plasma of recovered patients. H-IG has been shown effective in treatment of SARS in the past. Read more.
