The Medicines Being Developed to Fight the COVID-19 Pandemic

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 numb...