Progress Towards a Cure!

In A Measure of Restraint, Chet Raymo warns of the “dangers lurking in the human quest for scientific discovery”. While this is a valid concern in regard to his piece, with the COVID-19 virus spreading panic like wildfire across the country, some scientific discoveries couldn’t hurt, right? To ease some concerns from anyone reading this, here are some scientific discoveries and progress being made towards a vaccine and cure for the coronavirus. 

One company in the process of vaccine production is Inovio Pharmaceuticals. As of March 13th, their vaccine has not been tested on any humans, and isn’t approved for treatment. However, they have had preclinical testing performed between Jan. 23 and Feb. 29, and the company plans to begin clinical trials in the U.S. with 30 participants in April. Inovio stated that these trials will be conducted “only in healthy volunteers who have not

been exposed to the coronavirus”. They expect to have the first results from the trials in the fall, and to have 1 million doses of the vaccine ready for additional clinical trials or emergency use by the end of the year. This is connected back to Raymo’s piece, as it is said in the piece that the quest for scientific discovery also is a quest for fame, with Inovio Pharmaceuticals already having a profit of $208 million on their unreleased vaccine as a result of their market valuation skyrocketing up 278.2%.

Moderna Inc. is also in the process of producing and testing possible vaccines. On January 23rd, Moderna received funding to develop an mRNA vaccine against. On February 24th, it said it had shipped the first batch of mRNA-1273 to the NIAID for a Phase 1 clinical trial in the U.S. Moderna also stated that they will begin enrolling 45 healthy adult patients in an open-label Phase I clinical trial to test mRNA-1273 as a vaccine on March 19. The trial is expected to conclude June 1st, 2021. 

The company the furthest along in their cure production is Gilead Sciences, which are testing antivirals. They are currently in “Phase 3 clinical trials”, meaning that they will begin larger clinical testing. On February 21st, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases started enrolling patients in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase

3 trial evaluating 394 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 at 50 sites worldwide. The trial is expected to conclude April 1st, 2023. On March 3rd, Gilead said a randomized, open-label Phase 3 trial will evaluate remdesivir (antiviral drug) in 600 patients with moderate COVID-19. The trial is expected to start enrolling patients sometime in March, with results to come in May. 

(I apologize for the odd formatting! Upon publishing the text around any images keeps distorting!)