|
 That runs counter to reports of a supposed "breakthrough" that on
Wednesday boosted financial markets and spurred optimism not
necessarily backed by reality.
At least a dozen drugmakers are working on vaccines or antivirals
and other treatments to help those infected with the fast-spreading
contagion.
Investment costs for vaccines could run as high as $800 million in a
process that, even if accelerated, will likely take more than a year
until approval, according to executives from companies involved in
the effort.
"It will take at least 12 to 18 months, which means in the acute
situation we are in now - at least in China - that will not create a
benefit," said Thomas Breuer, chief medical officer of
GlaxoSmithKline's <GSK.L> vaccine unit. GSK is working with
developers by providing a technology that could make their vaccines
more potent.
The virus, which emerged in December in China, has killed nearly 500
people and shows no sign of abating, with thousands of new cases
reported each day, mostly in central China's Hubei province. But its
spread to some 27 countries and regions has caused global alarm.
To be sure, companies developing treatments for patients who are
already sick may be able to get a drug approved faster than a
vaccine that would be given to healthy people. Even so, logistical
and regulatory challenges remain, according to two executives at
Gilead Sciences Inc <GILD.O>, which is working on an experimental
antiviral treatment.
"There is a distinction there between a therapeutic and a vaccine.
Having said that, I think it is true that this won't be super fast
and it will involve us investing at risk right now," said Gilead
Chief Medical Officer Merdad Parsey.
Clinical trials for treatments can be smaller and of shorter
duration than for vaccines, Parsey acknowledged.
Challenges in making sure therapies are effective and then scaling
up production still remain. Gilead has only a limited supply of its
remdesivir, which will be tested against the coronavirus after
previously failing in trials as a treatment for Ebola.
'LOOKING FOR A MAGIC BULLET'
Dr. Thomas Frieden, who was director of the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention during the also deadly MERS outbreak, said
the benefit of antiviral treatments for such emergencies in the past
has been modest.
What worked with MERS and SARS, for example, was better infection
control in healthcare facilities, he said of two other types of
coronaviruses that also caused global alarm.
"It doesn't mean we shouldn't try, but we're often looking for a
magic bullet and the bright shiny object. Sometimes we need to just
have the basics," Frieden said.
A Chinese TV report on Wednesday said that a research team at
Zhejiang University had found an effective drug for the virus, while
researchers in the UK told Sky News separately they had made a
"significant breakthrough" in finding a vaccine.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports, but several
traders cited them for sharp upticks in global stock markets.
[to top of second column] |
"There are no known effective therapeutics against this 2019-nCoV,"
said World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic, using the
current designation for the new coronavirus, when asked about
reports of "drug breakthroughs."
Health officials in the United States and China have set ambitious
goals for getting a vaccine to initial human testing within the next
few months.
Newer vaccine platforms, such as one developed by Moderna Inc <MRNA.O>,
allow scientists to create a potential vaccine in record time just
based on knowing the genetic code of the novel coronavirus. With the
genetic code in hand, scientists can start vaccine development
without needing a sample of the virus.
Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases, which is using Moderna's platform, said the
agency is on the fastest pace ever to develop a vaccine candidate.
He hopes to have a vaccine available for initial safety testing
within two and a half to three months from the time scientists
determined the genetic sequence of the virus.
Novavax Inc <NVAX.O> research chief Gregory Glenn told Reuters his
company has taken vaccines from discovery to clinical testing in 90
days and believes it could do something similar for the new
coronavirus.
But to move vaccine candidates from the lab to widespread use in
patients involves a number of hurdles, according to health experts
and executives for drugmakers working on coronavirus vaccines and
treatments.
In addition to scaling up manufacturing capacity and building
distribution networks, there are regulatory hurdles such as
conducting large clinical trials to make sure a vaccine not only
confers immunity to the virus but is safe for use in the general
population.
"The earliest you could even know if it's going to work is a year,"
Fauci said.
Whether even a highly effective vaccine will prove profitable for
companies is another big question.
"The outbreak could be abating by the time a vaccine is deemed
safe," Karen Andersen, who follows biotech companies for
Morningstar, said in a research note.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has
raised around $800 million from donors to aid in preventing pandemic
diseases and has allocated some of those funds to biotechs,
including Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc <INO.O>, Moderna Inc <MRNA.O>
and CureVac, which are working on coronavirus vaccines.
"We stepped into this with no economic expectation," said Paul
Stoffels, Johnson & Johnson's <JNJ.N> chief scientific officer.
"We'll see whether in the end it gives a reward."
(Reporting by Carl O'Donnell and Michael Erman in New York;
additional reporting by Julia Steenhuysen in Chicago; Editing by
Bill Berkrot)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
