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.
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.