Gilead gains 4.8% as WHO sees potential in its antiviral drug
Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) jumps 4.8% after a World Health Organization official comments that the company’s experimental drug may be the best candidate to treat the new coronavirus that’s spreading globally.
Gilead’s remdesivir is the “one drug right now that we think may have efficacy,” Bruce Aylward, an assistant director-general at the World Health Organization, said at a briefing in Beijing.
The compound has been advanced to clinical trial in China. WHO said results may be available within weeks.
Previously: Stocks in selloff mode following coronavirus surge outside China (Feb. 24)
Moderna ships first batch of coronavirus vaccine for human trials
Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) +15.1% after-hours on news it shipped the first batch of its mRNA-1273 vaccine against the novel coronavirus to U.S. government researchers to be used in a planned phase 1 study in the U.S.
Moderna says it sent vaccine vials from its Norwood, Mass., manufacturing plant to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md.
The turnaround time in producing the first batch – co-designed with NIAID, after learning the genetic sequence for the new virus in January – was just 42 days.
If a trial starts as planned in April, only about three months would have passed from vaccine design to human testing; after a 2002 outbreak in China of an older coronavirus – severe acute respiratory syndrome – it took 20 months for NIAID to get a vaccine into the first stage of human testing
Co-Diagnostics wins CE mark for novel coronavirus test
Co-Diagnostics (CODX +28.4%) spiked into the close following news its Logix SmartCoronavirus COVID-19 Test obtained regulatory clearance to be sold as an in vitro diagnostic for the diagnosis of coronavirus in markets that accept CE-marking as valid regulatory approval.
The Declaration of Conformity for the Logix Smart COVID-19 test permits export and sales of the product as an IVD to begin immediately in the European Community.
Co-Diagnostics, which says it is the first U.S. company to receive a CE-marking for a coronavirus IVD, plans to scale up production to meet global demand.
Sanofi creating pharma ingredient company to IPO
Sanofi (SNY -1.9%) plans to create a company from six of its production sites in Europe, which would rank as the world’s second largest API (active pharmaceutical ingredients) business with approximately €1B in expected sales by 2022.
A planned IPO on Euronext Paris would be evaluated with a decision expected by 2022, subject to market conditions.
Sanofi would also become a customer in the new company, taking a minority stake of approximately 30%.
Cowen cools on cannabis names
Cowen drops Tilray (TLRY -8.3%), Aurora Cannabis (ACB -4.5%) and Sundial Growers (SNDL +3.9%) to Market Perform ratings after having all three set at Outperform.
The firm says it’s increasingly cautious on the outlook for cannabis in Canada. “Headwinds that have plagued the industry (pricing, stores, inventory) do not appear to be fading as anticipated, while 2.0 is likely not the elixir that the market was hoping for,” warns the Cowen analyst team.
