5 Companies Lead the Race in Producing the First COVID-19 Vaccine

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by Adedamola Bada · 4 min read
5 Companies Lead the Race in Producing the First COVID-19 Vaccine
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Five pharmaceutical companies across the globe lead the race in producing the first approved COVID-19 vaccine. Wall Street is likewise on alert for banking on the first company to produce an efficient one.

As the battle against the spread of coronavirus outbreak across the world intensifies, many companies are working to put themselves at the forefront in producing viable COVID-19 vaccine.

Producing a vaccine for human testing and adoption to address the Coronavirus outbreak remains as crucial as ever, but a working vaccine approved and available for public use is almost not feasible this year. Approval of a vaccine for public application, however, faces different barriers and conditions that are bound to slow up the process of worldwide adoption.

Regardless, this is not slowing down many pharmaceutical companies in racing to produce the first working Coronavirus vaccine. And likewise, Wall Street and majorly investors alike are at alert in poaching the first solution. 

Here is the list of pharmaceutical companies close to releasing the first approved COVID-19 vaccine in an attempt to put an end to the current global pandemic.

Gilead (GILD)

Gilead remains a household name in the pharmaceutical world and it is no surprise that they are popping up first on this list. The giant pharmaceutical company was one of the leading forerunners in the production of a vaccine for the once deadly SARS virus, which also shares a family with COVID-19. By leveraging its previous success with SARS, Gilead is generally expected to be one of the closest to the Coronavirus vaccine.

Rexidilvir, which is one of Gilead’s drugs has also been recently approved as one of the medicines to combat the Coronavirus. Gilead has also announced it would cease accepting individual emergency requests for its experimental coronavirus drug due to increasing and overwhelming demand.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)

 GSK is a popular drug maker brand based in the UK and is known most for its incredible success with HPVs. The UK based drugmaker was the first to make efficient working vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV) as well as the seasonal flu.

GSK has since been in collaboration with another Chinese based company in making a vaccine and has offered its own nascent solution to the virus, the COVID-19 S-Trimer for preclinical trials.

Johnson and Johnson (JNJ)

Johnson and Johnson is one of the biggest names in the pharmaceutical world. J and J is very well known for its vaccine solution in combating the Ebola virus during the outbreak in Africa.

The company like a few other drugmakers have been working with BARDA to develop and screen antiviral therapies and solutions to the ravaging pandemic. J and J is looking to leverage its earlier success with the Ebola virus vaccine and hopes to have a vaccine ready for clinical trials by the end of the year. 

Moderna (MRNA)

Moderna is already moving as fast as can be possible and has begun phase 1 clinical trials about two weeks ago. On March 16, Moderna tested its first human patient with a dose of its new experimental COVID-19 vaccine known currently as mRNA-1273.

Moderna is testing patients between the ages of 18 and 55 and would be following up on its tested patients for at least a year. This is just to say the Moderna vaccine would most likely not be concluded until June 2021.

Moderna stock shares have since shot up more than 50 percent since its announcement.

Sanofi

Sanofi is one of the biggest drugmakers in the world. Based in France, the company has been working closely with New York-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in developing a vaccine and most importantly an effective treatment against Coronavirus. Kevzara, a product of the two companies to address rheumatoid arthritis which was approved in 2017 has entered the conversation of viable treatments against Coronavirus.

The drug has since begun its Phase 2/3 trials a fortnight ago on March 16 as the trials hope to study Kevzara’s impact on breathing and oxygen levels and benefits on COVID-19 patients. Sanofi also had previous success with the SARS vaccine and would be looking to leverage on it in the race to produce a COVID-19 vaccine.

Positive announcements regarding the progress of vaccine programs have since brought needed boost for stocks, and Sanofi and Gilead alongside others have since seen significant gains in stock prices. The race is still as keen as ever, and we can only hope that a solution is reached as soon as possible.

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