Gilead Sciences Inc has signed agreements with four pharma companies, Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, Biocon arm Syngene International Ltd, Zydu Cadila Ltd and Egypt-based Eva Pharma Pvt Ltd, for manufacturing and sale of remdesivir, which has shown greater impact during initial two phases of trials. The company had previously signed pacts with five other companies including Cipla, Jubilant Life, Hetero Drugs, Mylon and Pakistan's Ferozsons Laboratories.
The decision was taken after the company got emergency use authorisation in the US. Remdesivir had shown promising results during two phases of trials, with the recent one by the US' National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
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The company is now in the process of conducting the third clinical phase trial.
Besides, US-based Moderna has also said that it has selected a dose for the final stage of clinical trials. It estimated that the trials would begin in July. Moderna's clinical trial for the possible coronavirus vaccine would include 30,000 people and would be conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The corona vaccine would be tested for preventing COVID symptoms.
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Also, pharma company AstraZeneca has signed an $87 million deal with Emergent Biosolutions to manufacture Oxford University's corona vaccine. As part of the deal, Emergent would reserve large-scale manufacturing capacity for the candidate.
It would also aid AstraZeneca in achieving its aim of producing more than 2 billion doses by 2021.
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Brazil's Instituto Butantan has also reached an agreement with China's Sinovac to create a COVID-19 vaccine. The tests for the same would begin in July and would include around 9,000 Brazilians. If proven effective, the corona vaccine would be produced in Brazil.
Additionally, Israeli researchers have identified molecules that may lead to the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, as stated by Bar Ilan University in Central Israel. BIU researchers have examined antigen molecules that could provoke an immune response of antibody production.
Chinese pharma company Sinopharm has cleared the animal trials. Sinopharm researchers picked one viral strain from a patient that showed optimal ability to replicate to make the coronavirus vaccine. The researchers evaluated mice and rhesus macaques for their findings.
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