HONG KONG – Foster City, Calif.-based Gilead Sciences Inc., which is ramping up its COVID-19 candidate production and research and is donating 1.5 million doses for compassionate use, published results in New England Journal of Medicine from a cohort analysis of 53 severe patients hospitalized with severe complications from COVID-19, showing a cumulative incidence of clinical improvement of 84% after 28 days of follow-up, according to Kaplan-Meier analysis.

“Vaccines, obviously, are the ultimate solution for pandemics,” Rino Rappuoli told BioWorld. They have, he added, “already eliminated a lot of pandemic threats – smallpox, influenza, poliomyelitis.”

Specific therapies against a new disease take time to develop. But there are methods that can speed up that development.

There will be lessons learned aplenty when the COVID-19 pandemic finally breaks, including how serological and molecular testing can be used to maximum effect to corral a future pandemic.

“In any crisis, leaders have two equally important responsibilities: solve the immediate problem and keep it from happening again."

In order to redirect health care resources and protect patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, many drug companies have paused enrollment in some or all of their ongoing clinical trials.

BEIJING – China, Yantai-based biologics maker Remegen Ltd. has raised about $100 million in a private round led by Lilly Asia Ventures and Lake Bleu Capital.

PERTH, Australia – Sydney-based Kazia Therapeutics Ltd. reported interim data showing that lead candidate paxalisib (formerly GDC-0084) saw a positive overall survival signal in its phase II glioblastoma trial, and the company raised AU$7.2 million (US$4.4 million) days after the data were released.

HONG KONG – China and U.S.-based Zai Lab Ltd. has signed on to develop and commercialize REGN-1979, a CD20xCD3 bispecific antibody from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Tarrytown, N.Y.