How 5 top drugmakers are racing to develop cures and vaccines for the coronavirus that has killed more than 400 people and infected over 20,000

Andrew Dunn

Feb 5, 2020, 01:04 IST

How 5 top drugmakers are racing to develop cures and vaccines for the coronavirus that has killed more than 400 people and infected over 20,000

wuhan coronavirus medical staff india hospital

Drugmakers have begun researching treatments and vaccines to stop the Wuhan coronavirus.

As the coronavirus outbreak has exploded into a global public health emergency, leading drugmakers have begun researching treatments and vaccines to stop the virus.
In recent days, Johnson & Johnson, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline, Gilead Sciences and Moderna have all announced efforts to combat the virus.
The virus's rapid spread has instilled urgency in development efforts, which are set to test how quickly these companies can identify and mass-produce effective treatments.
Here's a rundown of these companies' approaches, which include repurposing existing drugs as well as creating new vaccines based on the genetic understanding of the novel virus.
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As the Wuhan coronavirus has rapidly spread to kill hundreds and infect thousands, some of the world's leading drug developers have started working with US health authorities to research treatments.

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The companies - including Johnson & Johnson, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and Gilead Sciences - are taking a range of approaches. Some are developing vaccines from scratch using info about the virus's genetic code. Others are testing existing drugs as near-term treatment options.

While drug development is typically a multiyear process that faces significant hurdles, US health officials have been pushing speedy testing timelines. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institutes of Health's infectious disease center, said he hopes to start testing vaccine candidates in humans within the next three months.

That urgency stems from an outbreak that was recently declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization. The coronavirus has infected more than 20,000 people and killed at least 426, as it has spread to more than two dozen countries including the US.

Here's how five leading drugmakers are attempting to fight the virus.

Johnson & Johnson is testing 5 ideas for a vaccine

The largest healthcare company in the world is testing five ideas in hopes of finding an effective vaccine against the coronavirus, a leading R&D executive told CNBC on January 27.

"We are comfortable that we can create a vaccine and scale it up," said Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson, in a recent interview with CNBC.

The big pharma firm is not a stranger to developing vaccines for emerging crises. In the past, it has used its platforms to develop an investigational Ebola vaccine that has now been given to thousands of people in Africa, as well as vaccine candidates for HIV and respiratory synctial virus.

Additionally, the company donated 350 boxes of Prezcobix, its HIV therapy, to a range of Chinese hospitals and health officials. J&J stated this stemmed from anecdotal accounts that a certain type of antiviral has worked against similar coronaviruses in the past, such as SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Regeneron is pursuing 2 routes to find a coronavirus treatment

Regeneron and the US Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday expanded an agreement to develop antibodies against leading public health threats to include the coronavirus.

With that expansion, a biotech industry leader has started its efforts to counteract the virus, drawing similarities with its response to the Ebola crisis.

In that case, Tarrytown, New York-based Regeneron worked with US health officials in developing a treatment that showed some success in countering Ebola.

For this new coronavirus, Regeneron is exploring two routes, a company spokesperson told Business Insider on Tuesday.

First, Regeneron researchers will seek to discover new antibodies against the disease. To speed up early testing, the biotech plans to test the drug candidates in genetically-engineered mice that have immune systems similar to people.

This was how Regeneron approached Ebola. It took about six months to develop the new treatment and validate its effectiveness in animals, and then another six months to become ready for use in humans, a company spokesperson said.

The second approach is to test existing antibodies against the virus, such as a previous treatment Regeneron developed for MERS, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. This new virus has shown differences with MERS, so the likelihood of success on this front may not be particularly high, the spokesperson said.

Gilead Sciences wants to repurpose an existing virus-fighting drug

The California biotech Gilead is looking into repurposing an antiviral drug that was previously tested against Ebola.

Over the weekend, Gilead started a randomized trial testing the drug remdesivir against a placebo in 270 patients with mild to moderate pneumonia associated with the coronavirus.

While a single case reported in The New England Journal of Medicine has stirred excitement about remdesivir's potential, SVB Leerink biotech analyst Geoffrey Porges cautioned against reading too much into one patient.

"It is complicated to ascribe efficacy to a single drug from one anecdotal report, especially given the complex disease course, potential for resolution on its own, and multiple other therapies on board. " Porges wrote in February 3 note to investors.

Gilead also said the drug has shown activity in animals against similar viruses like MERS and SARS.

GlaxoSmithKline is offering up tech to help others working on vaccines

The British drugmaker isn't developing its own vaccine, but looking to support other efforts.

GlaxoSmithKline said on February 3 it will supply some of its technology to aid other vaccine efforts, in coordination with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a group that's been backing efforts to find vaccines.

In particular, GSK will offer up its pandemic vaccine adjuvant platform. Adjuvants are added to vaccines to boost immune responses and typically help build a stronger, longer-lasting effect. That can also allow less vaccine to be used per person, making doses available to more people, CEPI said.

"Our adjuvant technology has previously been used successfully in the pandemic flu setting," said Thomas Breuer, the chief medical officer of GSK Vaccines. "It enables using only small quantities of the vaccine antigen which allows the production of more doses of the vaccine - a crucial advantage in a pandemic."

Moderna is testing its new technology to quickly produce a vaccine

While the rest of the drugmakers on this list have decades of experience getting drugs through testing and delivering them to patients, the buzzy biotech Moderna will be testing its new technology against this public health threat.

The $7 billion biotech went public in 2018, based off the promises of its novel genetic approach to therapeutics.

The platform, called messenger RNA, is now being used to develop a vaccine candidate with financial support from the NIH and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

The NIH will then lead the first in-human studies of the vaccine, primarily focused on safety and tolerability.

The biotech believes its technology can accelerate the process and quickly produce a vaccine against the coronavirus.

"It's really a big step forward compared to traditional vaccines," Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told Business Insider, adding drugmakers typically have to invent a manufacturing process almost from scratch for each vaccine.

Lots of small biotechs say they're working on vaccines too, but they lack the resources of bigger firms

With more than 500 publicly traded companies, the long tail of the biotech industry has also gotten involved in developing treatments against the coronavirus.

These companies have yet to bring a drug to market and have significantly limited resources compared to industry-leading pharma and biotech companies, particularly in terms of their ability to run trials in lots of people or manufacture vaccines or drugs.

In addition to Moderna, CEPI is also working with and awarded funding to vaccine development efforts by Inovio, a small Pennsylvania-based biotech, and CureVac, a German drug developer also looking at a messenger RNA therapeutic approach.

CEPI is still seeking to fund more ideas, publishing Monday a call for additional vaccine proposals with a February 14 deadline.