Headline Diplomat – Issue 1
The perilous lenses of COVID-19: The impact on the economy
Writes Catherine Hamilton, Content Writer, LinkedIn
Over the past few months, there has been enormous pressure on the pharmaceutical industry to produce a medicinal product that can fight and cure the COVID-19 virus.
So far, the contenders in the race to create a vaccine are companies Moderna and Novavax, in addition to COVAXX – a start-up birthed in the wake of the pandemic – which all hope to produce the most effective vaccine against the coronavirus. In China, two companies are in the running, including Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical, and Shenzen Kangtai, a vaccine manufacturer that has partnered with European pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.
While a number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have been making solid headway towards a vaccine – that will help us return to ‘normal’ living – it will still be months before a vaccine is made available to the general public, though there are a number of drugs which have been said to reduce the effects of the coronavirus.
Currently, convalescent plasma is used to treat COVID-19 and is transfused into patients to increase the number of coronavirus-fighting antibodies in their blood, since the plasma contains antibodies from recovered patients. This is an age-old treatment for viral diseases, including SARS and measles, and some success has been reported from China about this remedy.
More recently, dexamethasone has been found to reduce the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators, while for those on oxygen, the chance of death was reduced by a fifth. Already an FDA-approved drug, used to reduce inflammation in those with a number of conditions, such as arthritis and asthma, dexamethasone helps to manage the damage done to the body when the immune system goes into overdrive – producing a cytokine storm – in order to fight off the virus.
Perhaps the underdog in the anti-viral race, professors at a university in the UK – collectively called Synairgen – have developed an experimental drug named SNG001 which has been proven to reduce the risk of dying from COVID-19 by 79%, though more tests need to be done to ensure it’s safe for public consumption. The drug is comprised of a naturally occurring protein which is less abundant in those most vulnerable to COVID-19, such as the elderly and those with heart problems.
Another drug tested to improve the symptoms of COVID-19 was hydroxychloroquine – a drug used for malaria – which Donald Trump backed, though the US public health officials deemed it ineffective, and liable to cause heart problems.
The real race during this pandemic, however, has been to find an effective vaccine, and there are a number of competitors in contention to produce this vaccine on a large scale.
Moderna, for example, is starting phase 3 of its vaccine trial, mRNA-1273 in collaboration with government agencies in the US, and has received a further $472 million in funding from the government for vaccine development and upscaling, after an initial $483 million was given in April. Phase 1 of the trial revealed the vaccine to be safe, tolerated and produced the desired immune response in trial participants, after they received two doses of the vaccine. Data for the final phase of the trial is expected to be available by Winter.
Another leader in the search for the COVID-19 vaccine is the partnership formed between Pfizer and German biotechnology company BioNTech, which has engaged in a $1.95-billion-dollar agreement with the Trump administration in return for delivering 100 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine by December.
Both of these groups use technology which speeds up the manufacture of vaccines, which works by using a synthetic version of messenger RNA to train the body to recognise COVID-19, so that it can build up an immune response to the virus, and fight it more efficiently on contact.
A different approach has been taken by the COVID-specific research company COVAXX, which has developed the first multitope peptide-based vaccine, which targets the antigen on the S protein allowing the virus to attach to human cells. In contrast, the other vaccines in the running purely focus on the S protein which – COVAXX claims – doesn’t necessarily elicit a sufficient immune response. While the COVAXX vaccine elicits a strong immune response against COVID-19, triggering both B-cells and T-cells to attack the virus, studies have shown that it doesn’t exacerbate the effects of the disease – though these are based on animal trials.
COVAXX has largely been privately funded, with investors seeking to hit big, even during the pandemic. One opportunist investor – named Bill Ackman – invested early in the company, and has since enjoyed a $2.6-billion return.
In China, Shenzen Kangtai signed a licensing pact with European pharma goliath AstraZeneca to produce vaccine AZD1222, to make 100 million doses of the vaccine annually. The vaccine – co-developed by researchers at Oxford University – is expected to have upwards of 200 million doses by the close of 2021, according to S&P Global. Both companies have been around for quite some time, and as such, have been built on the support of its investors, though the value of their stock has increased since they entered the war against COVID-19.
Conclusion
It is doubtless to say that whichever company succeeds at creating an effective vaccine against the coronavirus – and is able to scale-up production to meet the demand – will come out of this pandemic with a surplus of wealth, not to mention the wealth that their investors will have accumulated as a by-product of the devastation.
Featured photo Anna Shvets from Pexels
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