Undetected cases were a major driver of the early spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China, despite being less infectious on a case-by-case basis, according to a modeling study published in the March 16, 2020, online issue of Science.

The past week has seen a lot of movement in terms of tests to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. “It is notable that the diagnostics community is coming together in a way we have not seen in our 20 years covering this industry,” wrote William Blair analyst Brian Weinstein in a March 14 note. “Regulators, lab professionals, and manufacturers are all in a frenetic fury to try and get testing up and running, and we generally see a sense of ‘in it together’ playing out.”

The importance of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) has not been lost on drug development companies. Recently, to help accelerate the discovery of therapies to treat COVID-19, several deals have been established to help deploy those tools.

BEIJING – Biotech companies in China were among the first to experience disruptions in their operations and development plans from the COVID-19 outbreak, with employees unable to report to work and difficulties continuing trials.

“We look forward to the day where we can get back to normal,” U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday at a COVID-19 news conference in which reporters sat every-other-seat apart. In an unusually somber tone, the president said it now looks like it will be at least July or August before the outbreak “washes through.”

The circuit breakers activated almost immediately when the markets opened this morning as the Dow plummeted, with investors moving into cash and away from equities. Clearly, they were not impressed with the Federal Reserve’s decision to slash its benchmark interest rate to nearly 0% to help combat the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.

LONDON – The European Commission offered up to €80 million (US$89.4 million) of funding to Curevac AG, to scale up development and production of a vaccine against the coronavirus in Europe, following reports that the U.S. administration had made an offer for the German biotech, in order to get exclusive control of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Another volatile day of trading in health care stocks unfolded March 13, after a trebling of broader market carnage the day before and the declaration of a national emergency by U.S. President Donald Trump Friday afternoon. Substantial declines hit shares of Moderna Inc., Vaxart Inc. and Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc., all of which had recently rallied on optimism over coronavirus-fighting efforts. Biopharma shares saw some recovery, with both the S&P 500 Health Care Sector and Nasdaq biotechnology indices each rising a bit more than 2% each before Friday's close.