With the coronavirus outbreak at a “decisive point,” many drugmakers have launched efforts to develop a vaccine or have donated drugs they believe can help treat patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Here’s how 10 drugmakers have responded to the outbreak:
Editor’s note: Drugmakers are listed in alphabetical order.
- AbbVie
AbbVie said it will donate more than $1 million worth of its drug, Aluvia, to China to help combat the outbreak. Aluvia is designed to treat HIV, but China's National Health Commission has said that it is a possible treatment for the symptoms of the coronavirus. It works by blocking an enzyme that the coronavirus needs to reproduce, and it previously has been used to treat SARS and MERS, other types of coronaviruses. - Gilead Sciences
Chinese officials have been testing Gilead’s unapproved drug, remdesivir, to treat coronavirus patients. Remdesivir is an antiviral drug designed to treat infectious diseases such as Ebola and SARS. The National Institutes of Health started a clinical trial of remdesivir to treat COVID-19 on Feb. 25. - GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline said it would donate some of its technology to help aid other drugmakers in developing a coronavirus vaccine. - Inovio Pharmaceuticals
Inovio said it is working on a vaccine that will be made from DNA synthesized in a lab that resembles the genetic material from the coronavirus. - Johnson & Johnson
J&J is testing five ideas for a coronavirus vaccine, Paul Stoffels, MD, the drugmaker’s chief scientific officer, told CNBC Jan. 27. But it may take up to a year to bring it to the market. It also donated 350 boxes of its HIV drug, Prezcobix, to China to test its response to the coronavirus. - Moderna Therapeutics
Moderna said it is working with the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop a vaccine to combat the coronavirus. It shipped a batch of the experimental vaccine Feb. 24 to National Institutes of Health officials, who will conduct the first clinical trial. - Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Regeneron has been working with HHS to develop a treatment for the coronavirus. The agency said it will work to develop multiple monoclonal antibodies, which help block a virus from infecting human cells. - Roche
Roche introduced a commercial test that can diagnose COVID-19 within a couple of hours to speed efforts monitoring the spread of the virus. However, it struggled to deliver the tests to large Chinese cities after Chinese officials closed borders to try to slow down the outbreak. - Sandoz
Sandoz said it won’t raise list prices of its drugs that can be used to help treat coronavirus patients. The drugmaker created a list of drugs and products it considers "essential" to help people diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, including antivirals and antibiotics. - Sanofi
Sanofi is partnering with HHS to develop a coronavirus vaccine. The drugmaker said it will use its recombinant DNA platform to develop the vaccine and expects to have a vaccine candidate in six months, with human trials starting within a year to 18 months.