With the coronavirus creating havoc across the globe, researchers are rushing to find better treatment options and a cure. Our Head of Equities, Stephen Dover, and Portfolio Manager Evan McCulloch outline a few of the efforts the medical and scientific communities are taking to combat the virus.
The world’s medical and scientific community and health care, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are working more closely together than ever as our societies and economies seismically shift to new ways of engaging in life and commerce in response to the COVID-19 virus.
As global investors, we focus on data-driven and boots-on-the-ground research about COVID-19, and possible prevention, treatments and vaccines. Some of the positive steps the healthcare community is taking include:
- The virus responsible for COVID-19, “SARS-CoV-2,” also referred to as the “coronavirus,” has been identified and genetically sequenced and open-sourced for scientists to use.
- Most coronavirus data and research is public and open platform, enabling sharing of knowledge about prevention, treatments and vaccines.
- Our investment research teams are monitoring scores of possible vaccines for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and efficacious prevention and treatments for COVID-19.
- Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies globally are focused on prevention, treatments and vaccines for mitigating the coronavirus and COVID-19’s course.
Below is a short summary of five COVID-19 treatments in newsworthy research studies as of today, supplied by Evan McCulloch and our Franklin Equity Group health care and biotechnology research analysts.
Most Advanced Drugs for COVID-19
Evan McCulloch
Portfolio Manager, Director of Equity Research
Franklin Equity Group®
Evan McCulloch, CFA
The rapid mobilization by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to produce treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 looks impressive. Of the scores of key vaccine programs in various stages of development, as of today, we are most impressed with companies that have quickly advanced vaccine candidates into human clinical trials within months of the identification and sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
While currently there are no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs specifically for the prevention and treatment of patients with COVID-19, there are hundreds of known clinical trials that are underway globally.1 We’re also watching scores more investigational drugs and agents, including treatments already approved for other indications currently in use in the United States.
However, development takes time, it’s unknown what may be available near term, and today’s reports reveal how quickly research resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic could be obsolete tomorrow.
Of the scores of preventative measures, treatments and vaccines in development, five products highlighted below are newsworthy. We’re encouraged that biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries can continue to innovate in efforts to contain COVID-19’s current pandemic course, and are optimistic that an FDA-approved efficacious treatment can be produced for potentially life-saving treatments.
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1. Source: National Institutes of Health, US National Library of Medicine, www.clinicaltrials.gov, as of March 24, 2020.
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© Franklin Templeton Investments
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