Even the stock share prices in Gilead Sciences, which is in the testing phase of a drug called Remdesivir to treat coronavirus is not responding upward the way analysts expect it would, likely from being slowed down by a lack of eligible recruits in China.
[Giliad and] Regeneron Pharmaceuticals are both making progress in developing treatments for coronavirus, according to a report published Monday by Leerink Research. But the stocks were off more than 4% in afternoon trading, a sign that investors remain skeptical.
Early indications are that Gilead’s (ticker: GILD) antiviral drug Remdesivir, originally developed to treat Ebola virus, is the most promising treatment for severe cases of coronavirus, analyst Geoffrey Porges writes.
Here's an article from February on how the testing was progressing. . Here is the Wall St Journal's stock graph for Gilead.
As for the virus itself, New York now leads the nation with the most confirmed cases -- even the head of Port Authority of NY and NJ, Rick Cotton, has tested positive.
Sen. Ted Cruz has self-quarantined after shaking hands with a man who tested positive at an event called the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Even Donald Trump, who attended the same conference, has been personally exposed by his physical contact with two congressman who are quarantined.
Two Republican congressmen had contact with President Donald Trump before they announced they were entering self-quarantine because they were previously exposed to someone who has since been diagnosed with coronavirus.
Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia shook hands with Trump last week. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida flew on Air Force One with Trump on Monday. Both Collins and Gaetz said Monday they were self-quarantining because they had been in contact with a person at the Conservative Political Action Conference who since has been diagnosed with coronavirus.
Italy has just extended its quarantine to the entire country. Israel announced today it will require anyone entering the country to be placed in quarantine.
Will coronavirus be Donald Trump's political Waterloo? I think it's possible but not yet cast in stone. I do think it's possible that by the time the coronavirus has run its course, the damage to Trump could make Hurricane Katrina seem like it was just a puddle in the path of GW Bush.
How is it possible that Donald Trump, who has a business degree from the Wharton School, does not understand the scope of economic doom this virus is capable of causing? Can Wharton please send a tutor to the White House to explain the situation to Donald Trump, who seems even more dense than usual on this topic?
One other issue to worry about: raw materials for a huge amount of our prescription drugs come from China, so that if it is no longer safe to import drugs made with Chinese ingredients (or for India to import the ingredients from China, which then manufactures the drugs and sends them here and to the rest of the world) there would be a shortage of prescription medicine in the U.S. and around the world. Last week, India began limiting ingredients imported from China.
India’s pharmaceutical companies source about 70% of their ingredients from Chinese factories, many of which have been shut for weeks owing to the coronavirus outbreak. The closure of airports in China has also impeded supplies reaching India.
...While many Indian factories had stockpiled ingredients due to the lunar new year, those supplies are running low and most factories are covered only until the end of March.
Sahil Munjal, the vice-chair of the pharmaceutical export promotion council of India, said the restrictions could have a lasting impact on the global availability of commonly used drugs.
Munjal also stated the somewhat obvious consequences: drug prices will rise if there is a shortage.
The Wall Street Journal has expounded on this a few times. The FDA released a statement three weeks ago saying the agency is on it.
But last October, it said
it was pretty clueless too about the exact number of facilities in China and India exporting medicines and drugs to the U.S.
[D]ata available to FDA do not enable us to calculate the volume of APIs being used for U.S.-marketed drugs from China or India, and what percentage of U.S. drug consumption this represents. As mentioned above, we do not know whether Chinese facilities are actually producing APIs, how much they are producing, or where the APIs they are producing are being distributed worldwide, including in the United States.
....Since we do not currently know whether API manufacturing facilities are actually producing the drug, or in what volume, or what portion of U.S. drug consumption is dependent on APIs from China or India, or another country, we cannot perform a reliable gap analysis.
Even if we could estimate the potential API shortfall and available production capacity, pharmaceutical companies make business decisions about whether to produce a drug product, including an API, and FDA does not have the power to tell them to make a drug. This provides additional uncertainty in assessing the potential responsiveness of the U.S. manufacturing base to a crisis triggered by another country’s withdrawal.
And Donald Trump continued his under-informed comments today, comparing the coronavirus to the common flu. He shook hands with several people and said he's not worried.
