WORLD BANK OFFERS FUNDS TO COVID-19 AFFECTED COUNTRIES

As of Tuesday, more than 80,000 people around the world have become infected with the novel coronavirus, originally designated 2019-nCoV and now called SARS-CoV-2, according to the World Health Organization. The overwhelming majority of those cases – and the estimated 2,700 deaths – are in China, particularly around Wuhan, China, where the virus was first detected. However, large outbreaks in South Korea, Italy and Iran have fueled fears of a potential global pandemic, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said an outbreak in the U.S. is inevitable. Government health authorities and drugmakers have quickly mobilized to distribute funds and drugs to affected persons o subsidies bills develop drugs to treat patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and vaccines to prevent infection Headquarters: Cambridge, Massachusetts Market cap: $10.3 billion Product: Vaccine (mRNA-1273) Stage: Phase I trial to begin soon The company said on Monday that it had released the first batch of its investigational vaccine, mRNA-1273, for use in a Phase I trial among healthy volunteers. A page for the trial was posted on ClinicalTrials.gov the next day, with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases – part of the National Institutes of Health – acting as sponsor. The trial page gives an estimated start date of March 6, though NIAID Director Anthony Fauci told The Wall Street Journal Monday that it could start in April. One site, run by Kaiser Permanente, is listed. Gilead Sciences Headquarters: Foster City, California Market cap: $94 billion Product: Drug (remdesivir) Stage: Phase II trial initiated

Based on mouse studies showing that an investigational Gilead drug, remdesivir, has broad-spectrum activity against coronaviruses – particularly the SARS and MERS viruses – followed by a report of a COVID-19 patient’s symptoms resolving after taking it, there are now multiple clinical trials testing the drug in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. The most recent one is a Phase II study that just opened at the University of Nebraska, sponsored by the NIAID, and other studies had previously been initiated in China.