The Top 3 Companies Racing to Create COVID-19 Vaccine

The coronavirus is still wreaking havoc around the world.

To date, total confirmed global cases are up to 3.6 million, with 252,102 deaths.  In the U.S., the number of cases is up to 1.18 million.  In Spain, it’s up to 218,011.  In Italy, 211,938.  In the UK, 191,8332.  In France, it’s up to 169,583.  And it Germany, 166,199.

While those are troubling numbers, the good news is we may be nearing a vaccine.

Gilead Sciences (GILD)

For one, Gilead recently noted preliminary results of a COVID-19 vaccine trial “showed at least 50% of patients treated with a 5-day dosage of antiviral drug remdesivir improved and more than half were discharged from the hospital within two weeks,” as noted by CNBC.  “The company also said another trial by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases met its main goal.”

“These data are encouraging as they indicate that patients who received a shorter, 5-day course of remdesivir experienced similar clinical improvement as patients who received a 10-day treatment course,” said Aruna Subramanian, a lead investigator of the study.

BioNTech (BNTX) and Pfizer (PFE)

Then, BioNTech and Pfizer announced they’ve begun delivering doses of their experimental coronavirus vaccines for initial human testing in the United States, says CNBC.  “If the vaccine proves to be safe and effective in trials, it could potentially be ready for wide U.S. distribution by the end of the year, shaving several years off the typical vaccine development timeline.”

“We are optimistic that advancing multiple vaccine candidates into human trials will allow us to identify the safest, most effective vaccination options against COVID-19,” said BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin, as quoted by MarketWatch.