RepliCel Life Sciences Inc (TSXV:RP)
RepliCel is a regenerative medicine company developing autologous cell therapies that address diseases caused by a deficit of healthy cells required for normal healing and function.
Amarin (AMRN +18.0%) is up on massive turnover of over 63M shares in apparent reaction to a call between a patent lawyer and Jefferies’ Jared Holz about the adverse patent ruling on Vascepa (icosapent ethyl) that caused the stock to plummet almost 71% yesterday.
The attorney said the company has an even-money chance to win on appeal citing a possible procedural error in the case.
According to Johns Hopkins Case Tracker, global confirmed COVID-19 cases are 887,067, up 77,459 (+9.6%) from yesterday. Fatalities are up 11.9% to 44,264. Leaders:
U.S.: 190,740 (+24,866)/4,127 (+949).
Italy: 105,792 (+4,053)/12,428 (+837).
Spain: 102,136 (+7,719)/9,053 (+784).
China: 82,361 (+83)/3,316 (+7).
Germany: 74,508 (+6,328)/821 (+139).
Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) has initiated two Phase 3 clinical trials in the UK evaluating remdesivir in moderately-to-severely ill COVID-19 patients. 15 sites will be initially involved.
Shares are down a fraction premarket.
Thinly traded nano cap Chembio Diagnostics (NASDAQ:CEMI) jumps 54% premarket on average volume in reaction to the U.S. launch of its rapid DPP COVID-19 point-of-care blood test that detects IgM and IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in 15 minutes from a fingerstick sample.
In a note, UBS regards the republished results from one of the first randomized trials evaluating malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in COVID-19 patients as “inconclusive.”
62 patients in the China-based study were randomized into two arms, one receiving 400 mg of HCQ and the other placebo. All participants received standard-of-care treatment for COVID-19, including oxygen therapy, antivirals, antibacterials and immunoglobulin with and without corticosteroids.
Temperature and cough recovery times were both shortened by ~one day in both arms. No patients in the HCQ group progressed to severe disease versus four in the control group. 80% of patients receiving HCQ experienced improvement in pneumonia compared to ~55% in the placebo arm.
UBS cautions that investors should not over-interpret the data given the apparent imbalance in the severity of disease between the arms, adding that progression severity in early-stage patients versus the natural subsiding of disease in more severely ill patients could account for the efficacy difference.
It also cites a smaller (n=30) open-label study conducted in Shanghai that showed no difference between HCQ and placebo as measured by viral clearance or duration of hospitalization.
It maintains that large-scale studies are needed to prove efficacy.
