In a statement, the American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC), a clinical laboratory industry group, says the scarcity of essential gear, including sample collection (nasal swabs) and test components and personal protective equipment, will continue to hamper the nation’s labs in expanding testing capacity for COVID-19.
The establishment of ubiquitous testing is an essential precondition for reopening the U.S.
It calls on the federal government to continue to use all of its powers to remedy the shortages so that healthcare and lab professionals can “do their jobs.”
In an interview, Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) chief Paul Hudson said the company can produce up to 600M doses of its coronavirus vaccine next year if studies with partner GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) proceed as planned. Clinical trials should launch in H2 with product availability about a year later if all goes well.
“We believe that we’re one of the few companies who will be able to make a vaccine at a huge scale,” he said.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) stated that it is planning to make 600M – 900M doses of its vaccine by the end of Q1 2021 if its studies proceed as expected.
SNY up 2% premarket while GSK and JNJ are both up 1%, all on light volume.
In a statement, SCWorx (WORX -3.2%) reiterates its previously announced plan to distribute COVID-19 antibody test kits in the U.S. and the committed order for 2M units from Rethink My Healthcare, adding that it continues to expect receiving the first order within ~two weeks.
Shares have rebounded off intraday lows on the news.
The study of a random sampling of 3.3K living in Santa Clara County found those infected with coronavirus to be 2.49%-4.16% of the population. Extrapolated out, that would mean 48K-81K folks infected in Santa Clara, or a whopping 50x-85x more than officially confirmed cases.
The public policy implications are enormous in that they would change by a mile the denominator when figuring out the fatality rate. The study authors figure the rate would be something closer to 0.12%-0.2%, or in the same area as normal flu levels.
Some are questioning whether the sampling was truly random, but others note these numbers comport with other studies coming out of Europe. Coming soon are results from a study of all MLB employees – from the front offices to the players to the hot dog vendors.
Last night’s news out of Chicago is “uncontrolled, anecdotal data, which often ends up not being confirmed in controlled studies,” says Baird.
“We think the ensuing exuberance shows a lack of critical analysis.”
Raymond James is equally dour, saying even if the results are taken at face value, “they appear 100% congruent with the prior NEJM compassionate use cohort (N=53), which implied a potential modest-to-no benefit over historical comps.”
Gilead (NASDAQ:GILD) remains higher by 10% premarket.
