(Bloomberg) —
A flurry of drug companies stepped up efforts to tackle the virus. Gilead Sciences Inc. is working to ensure access to a treatment drug in Asia, Europe and the developing world. Pfizer Inc. administered the first U.S. patients with its experimental vaccine, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. said an antibody treatment could be available as soon as this fall.
Walt Disney Co. plans to reopen its theme park in Shanghai next week after reporting $1.4 billion in lost profit last quarter from shutdowns. The U.K.’s coronavirus death toll soared past that of Italy, making it the worst hit country in Europe.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the country must begin reopening its economy even if more Americans fall sick and die, saying “the people of our country are warriors.” He reiterated that the only reason the U.S. leads the world in cases is because it’s performing more tests.
Key Developments
- Virus Tracker: global cases pass 3.6 million; deaths top 256,000
- China bristles as Trump pushes virus-from-lab theory
- Covid-19 research groups are being attacked by hackers
- Emerging-market survey sees Latin America biggest virus loser
- Jack Ma’s online bank plans crisis lending spree
- Bailouts spark crisis of confidence in capitalism
- Supply disruptions mask distress in UAE and Saudi Arabia
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Gilead in Talks to Expand Remdesivir Production (5:13 p.m. NY)
Gilead Sciences Inc. is in talks with manufacturers to supply remdesivir, its Covid-19 treatment that’s been cleared by U.S. health regulators for emergency use.
The talks cover production for Europe, Asia and the developing world through 2022, Foster City, California-based Gilead said in a blog post. It’s also talking with manufacturers in India and Pakistan about manufacturing for developing markets, and about how to license the drug in those markets.
The company promised it will make the compound “accessible and affordable to governments and patients around the world.”
Pfizer Starts U.S. Trials of Experimental Vaccine (6:50 a.m. NY)
Pfizer Inc. has administered the first U.S. patients with its experimental vaccines to fight the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, part of a bid to shave years off of the typical time it takes to develop a new inoculation. The trials are being conducted at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Pfizer and BioNTech are in a race with companies including Johnson & Johnson and Moderna Inc. and academic groups to come up with a safe and effective vaccine against the illness. The handful of human trials already underway include projects by Moderna, CanSino Biologics Inc., the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology and Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Sanofi Eyes Early-Stage Vaccine Trials: Reuters (5:51 a.m. Singapore)
Sanofi’s Pasteur division hopes to start early-stage trials in September with one covid-19 vaccine candidate and several hundreds of test subjects have been enrolled, Reuters reported, citing executives from the unit.
- Paring up with GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Sanofi will use a protein antigen based on a platform it uses for its influenza vaccine Flublok
- Sanofit is also working with Translate Bio Inc. on another vaccine candidate based on messenger RNA technology, similar to what Pfizer is developing with BioNtech and what Moderna is working on with the U.S. government, Reuters reported.
Regeneron Treatment Could Be Out by Fall (12:03 p.m. NY)
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. said an experimental antibody treatment for Covid-19 could be available as soon as this fall, an expedited timeline for a drug that’s scheduled to be studied in humans for the first time in June.
To meet the fall timeline will “depend on a lot of factors,” including whether the treatment works as well as hoped, “and there is obviously a lot of risk,” Regeneron Chief Scientific Officer George Yancopoulos said Tuesday on a conference call with investors.
Mesoblast Says First Patients Dosed in Trial of Remestemcel-L (8:18 p.m. NY)
The first patients have been dosed in the 300-patient randomized placebo-controlled Phase 2/3 trial in the U.S. of Mesoblast’s allogeneic cellular medicine remestemcel-L in Covid-19 infected patients with moderate to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome on ventilator support.
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Stop ‘Blame Game,’ China’s U.S. Ambassador Says (7:06 a.m. Beijing)
Blaming China for the coronavirus will not end the pandemic, Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the U.S., wrote in the Washington Post.
“On the contrary, the mind-set risks decoupling China and the United States and hurting our efforts to fight the disease, our coordination to reignite the global economy, our ability to conquer other challenges and our prospects of a better future,” Cui wrote. “The United States would not emerge as a winner from this scenario.”
The letter follows comments by U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo promoting a theory that the novel coronavirus likely escaped from a laboratory in the Wuhan Institute of Virology that studies some of the world’s most dangerous pathogens.
Disney Profit Plunges With Parks Closed (4:20 p.m. NY)
Walt Disney Co.’s second-quarter profit plunged by more than half as the world’s largest entertainment company was bludgeoned on all sides by the coronavirus.
The worst performance by far came from the theme-park division, where operating income tumbled to $639 million from $1.51 billion last year. Disney’s parks remain shuttered around the world, with the resorts in Asia closed since late January. Profits at the film studio dropped 8% with many theaters shuttered around the world. And cable networks such as ESPN were hurt by an advertising slump in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown. ESPN is especially vulnerable in a world without live sports.
One bright spot was the direct-to-consumer division, which has seen strong growth in subscribers to its new Disney+ streaming service launched in November.
