WHO Officials Indicating at Least 20 Vaccines in Development in Global Race for a Cure

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PALM BEACH, Florida, March 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The World Health Organization is working with scientists across the globe on at least 20 different coronavirus vaccines with some already in clinical trials in record time — just 60 days after sequencing the gene, according to reports from CNBC. "The acceleration of this process is really truly dramatic in terms of what we're able to do, building on work that started with SARS, that started with MERS and now is being used for COVID-19 ," Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead for WHO's emergencies program, said at a press conference at the organization's headquarters in Geneva on Friday. Reuters reports that U.S. researchers, following the lead of scientists in other countries, have launched studies to see whether widely-available, low-cost generic drugs can be used to help treat the illness caused by the new coronavirus.  There are currently no vaccines or treatments for the highly-contagious COVID-19 respiratory illness, so patients can only receive supportive care for now. But a 1,500-person trial, led by the University of Minnesota, began this week to see whether malaria treatment hydroxychloroquine can prevent or reduce the severity of COVID-19. Two other trials are studying the blood pressure drug losartan as a possible treatment for the disease.   Active healthcare stocks in news today include:  BioSig Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:BSGM), Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD), Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: INO), IMAC Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: IMAC), Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX).

Most people infected with the new coronavirus develop only mild flu-like symptoms, but around 20 percent can have more severe disease that can lead to pneumonia requiring hospitalization. A French team on Tuesday said initial results from a 24-patient trial of hydroxychloroquine showed that 25% of patients given the drug still carried the coronavirus after six days, compared with 90% of patients given a placebo.   A Reuters report concluded: "Pharmaceutical companies are also working to develop treatments for COVID-19, including Gilead Sciences Inc's experimental antiviral drug remdesivir, which is given to hospitalized patients via intravenous infusion over several days.