Two more companies, Novavax Inc. and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., are on the receiving end of U.S. federal government funding to develop and deliver a COVID-19 vaccine in 2021.
The devastating societal and economic effects caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic should sound a warning bell on how ill-prepared we are in our ability to fight lethal infectious diseases for which no effective therapies or vaccines currently exist. Indirectly, the intense public attention on companies that are engaged in developing COVID-19 cures is also spilling over to companies researching to uncover new anti-infectives that will be needed to replace the diminishing arsenal of effective therapies to combat drug-resistant bacteria and fungi. This is certainly evident among public companies in the space, with the BioWorld Infectious Diseases index showing an increasing upward trend since the beginning of the year. At market close on May 11, the index had, in fact, grown in value by a whopping 47%.
Novavax Inc., one of the first biopharma companies to reveal its efforts to develop a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in January, has identified a prefusion protein for testing in an Australian phase I trial, slated to start in mid-May.
The public attention that COVID-19 has received has spilled over to antibiotics companies, and the BioWorld Infectious Diseases index has grown 14% in value since the beginning of the year.
In response to the emergence of a new coronavirus seen recently in China, and now America, Novavax Inc. has initiated development of a vaccine candidate, the company told BioWorld. Company shares (NASDAQ:NVAX) climbed more than 71% Jan. 21, ending the day at $9.82.
"We tried to land on Mars and we got to the moon," Novavax Inc. President of R&D Gregory Glenn told BioWorld, referring to the Gaithersburg, Md.-based firm's phase III trial with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine called Resvax. And it was more than anyone had done thus far, he added.
