What to know about the latest setbacks in the hunt for COVID-19 vaccines and treatment
Advertisement
Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer
Oct 16, 2020, 20:00 IST
Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Hello,
Advertisement
Amid the busy news cycle, I hope you're all having a chance to take in a few fall moments. My fall moments this week included baking my first pumpkin bread of the season, and making butternut squash soup for the first time (I had no idea how involved the process of cubing butternut squash could be!)
While that's happening, all eyes have been glued to the roller coaster ride that is coronavirus treatments and vaccines development. More on that below.
We might know in the coming weeks whether some of the earliest COVID-19 vaccines work.
Getting to that point hasn't been without its challenges. Back in September, AstraZeneca paused its trials after a volunteer had what might've been a serious reaction (the trial resumed in the UK but not in the US yet.)
We also got some disappointing news about a batch of coronavirus treatments.
The World Health Organization said Thursday that remdesivir doesn't prevent people who are treated with it from dying. Remdesivir is the only antiviral drug authorized to treat COVID-19, and was one of two treatments that President Donald Trump received.
A refrain I've been keeping in mind when hearing and reporting about these setbacks, delays, etc. is just how fascinating it is to watch this science happen in real time. It's been less than a year since the novel coronavirus entered our lives, and it's remarkable how much we've learned in such a short period of time.
Here's hoping the pauses to the trials and the detours in finding what treatments work pay off in the end.
Megan spoke to 98point6 CEO Robbie Cape about the latest trend in fundraising: SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies that exist to help take companies public in a route that's different from the initial public offering process.
So far, we've seen two SPAC deals in healthcare, for direct-to-consumer healthcare company Hims, and health insurer Clover Health.
Cape told Megan that considering a SPAC was never in the cards.
"We will continue to make tradeoffs about the best financing strategies, and we will continue to make tradeoffs that ensure we can retain focus on the mission at hand as opposed to diluting it with other objectives and work items that come with managing a public company," Cape said.
NewsletterSIMPLY PUT - where we join the dots to inform and inspire you. Sign up for a weekly brief collating many news items into one untangled thought delivered straight to your mailbox.