In less than three months, almost 200,000 people have been infected and almost 8,000 have died from the COVID-19’s worldwide course. The fast spreading virus has placed tremendous pressure on the global healthcare industry to not only control the pandemic but to find an effective cure fast.

Numerous companies, ranging from legacy drugmakers to small startups, have stepped up and are tirelessly working to develop the much-needed COVID-19 cure. See how far these companies have come (and how far they still need to go) to make this cure available to the world.

Moderna Inc.

Name: mRNA-1273
Type: RNA-based vaccine
Possible Time of Availability: 12 – 18 months

One of the frontrunners in producing a vaccine for COVID-19, Moderna Inc. has made groundbreaking developments. The world’s first human trials for a COVID-19 vaccine have already begun last Monday, which includes the administering of varying doses on healthy individuals in Seattle, as announced by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. This would hopefully validate if the vaccine is safe for mass distribution.

A significant factor that contributed to this unprecedented speed in development is the researchers’ previous knowledge on related coronavirus that caused outbreaks like SARS and MERS. NIAID’s director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, stated that “as bad as this epidemic is, in one way it is lucky that a coronavirus caused it, because the researchers were at least partly ready for it.”

BioNTech SE

Name: BNT162
Type: Vaccine
Possible Time of Availability: Timeline is unavailable.

Another contender, the BioNTech, has announced last Monday that its global clinical development program called Project Lightspeed will be launched in April 2020. BioNTech has partnered with biotech Fosun Pharma for the clinical development and commercialization of the vaccine in China. The company also struck a partnership with global leader Pfizer Inc. for the vaccine development outside of China.

Gilead Sciences Inc.

Name: remdesivir
Type: Treatment
Possible Time of Availability: Later this year

“There’s only one drug right now that we think may have real efficacy. And that’s remdesivir,” Bruce Aylward, a World Health Organization official, announced in a press conference in China. Gilead Sciences will be launching two Phase III clinical trials for their antiviral drug remdesivir. Being the most likely candidate to launch a drug market release, the company will conduct a randomized trial in Wuhan, China for adult COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate forms of pneumonia.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Name: Name is still unavailable.
Type: Treatment and vaccine
Possible Time of Availability: Timeline is unavailable.

Using the intravenous drug that they developed for Ebola last year as a starting point, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals hopes to have hundreds of thousands of prophylactic doses ready for human testing by the end of August 2020. Last Tuesday, the company announced that they’ve found hundreds of virus-neutralizing antibodies that could be utilized by the drug they’re developing. They aim for the drug to work as both a treatment and a vaccine by dosing up people before they are exposed.

GlaxoSmithKline

Name: AS03 Adjuvant System
Type: Pandemic adjuvant platform for vaccines
Possible Time of Availability: Timeline is unavailable.

As one of the most established vaccine-makers in the world, GlaxoSmithKline has partnered up with a Chinese biotech firm, Clover Biopharmaceuticals Inc., and the University of Queensland to develop an adjuvant platform for the disease. The company believes that this technology could both strengthen the response of a vaccine and limit the amount of vaccine needed per dose.

Johnson & Johnson

Name: Name is still unavailable.
Type: Vaccine
Possible Time of Availability: Early next year

Much like Regenron, J&J will be utilizing the technology previously used during the Ebola outbreak. This time, they will be using the same vaccine platform. “We can plug in the vaccine into an existing system and that allows us to go very fast with very good information,” Dr. Paul Stoffels, J&J’s chief scientific officer, stated. This strategy has allowed them to have a speedy progress, with their first human clinical trials on a COVID-19 vaccine set in early November. They’ve also been creating processes to accommodate the widespread production of the vaccine by next year.

Sources:
These 13 companies are working on coronavirus treatments or vaccines — here’s where things stand – Market Watch
Coronavirus drugs: Who’s doing what, and when they might come – Daily Nation
Trial of Coronavirus Vaccine Made by Moderna Begins in Seattle – The New York Times
BioNTech (BNTX) Skyrockets on Coronavirus Vaccine Hopes; One Analyst Remains Cautious – Yahoo! Finance
Biopharma Industry News: Update on the Novel Coronavirus – Pharma Live
Regeneron’s CEO Says We Could Have a Covid-19 Treatment ‘Quickly’ – Barron’s
J&J hopes to start human trials for coronavirus vaccine in November – CNBC