80+ Trials Underway To Treat Covid-19

In just over 90 days of identification of a pneumonia of unknown cause, the novel coronavirus pandemic, which is raging around the world and posing a challenge for all countries and regions. As on April 2,2020 the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has risen above 1 million, according to the new tally from Johns Hopkins University. Since the emergence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), biopharmaceutical companies across the world have stepped up their research efforts to develop vaccines and treatments in order to contain the virus. As of March 26, 2020, there are a number of therapeutics currently in clinical trials and more than 52 candidate vaccines are in preclinical evaluation for COVID-19 and 2 candidate vaccines are in clinical evaluation. Over 80 clinical trials are underway to test new and existing medicines across the globe.

- Narayan Kulkarni

At the close of 2019, i.e. on December 31 the WHO China Country Office was informed of a pneumonia of unknown cause, detected in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, China. According to the authorities, some patients were operating dealers or vendors in the Huanan Seafood market. After 7 days the Chinese authorities identified the virus that caused the pneumonia-like illness as a new type of coronavirus (called novel coronavirus or nCoV). The first death in China due to this nCoV was recorded on January 10 even as officials confirmed a case of the novel coronavirus out of China-in Thailand-on January 13. WHO noted that it was not unexpected that cases of the novel coronavirus would emerge outside of China and reinforced why WHO calls for active monitoring and preparedness in other countries. Then it was no looking back for this novel coronavirus as it spread to over 200 countries with a total of 1,002,159 people being diagnosed across the world, a death toll of 51,485 and recovery of more than 200,000 patients as shown by the regularly updated tally of the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering in the US as on April 2.

Disease outbreaks present a unique opportunity for research, but this can only happen if experts in different countries share information promptly. The decision by Chinese authorities to release the genetic sequence of the newly discovered beta coronavirus for researchers worldwide exemplifies the transparency needed to tackle unfolding public health emergencies. This helped the scientists to have vital genetic data that will help speed up the development of diagnostic tests, case detection and, potentially, a vaccine.