Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19): Preventive Vaccines, Therapeutics and Diagnostics in Development

Overview

New coronavirus (COVID-19) is a previously unidentified strain of coronavirus, that first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. The virus belongs to the same family as the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). On 30th January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak as a global health emergency. In fact, the virus is estimated to have infected more than 45,000 individuals, around the globe (estimates till the second week of February 2020). In order to deal with this outbreak and prevent the spread of virus to new geographies, countries are adopting various precautions. The WHO has recently released the Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) that lays out activities and resources needed by international health organizations globally, including WHO, to implement priority public health measures in support of countries to prepare and respond to COVID-19 for a period between February to April 2020.

Close to 30 pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies, government agencies, and research institutes have disclosed research programs focused on developing vaccines/drugs to prevent or treat COVID-19 infections. In addition, more than 40 diagnostic tests are currently being developed for the effective diagnosis of patients. The rising healthcare burden of the disease has also attracted significant funding to fuel drug development efforts in this space; recent funding initiatives include USD 100 million funding by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and USD 26 million vaccine development fund by the UK government.

Scope of the Report

• The “Novel coronavirus (COVID-19): Preventive Vaccines, Therapeutics and Diagnostics in Development” report features an extensive study of the vaccine/drug candidates and diagnostic tests being investigated for COVID-19 infection prevention, treatment and diagnosis. Amongst other elements, the report includes:
• A detailed assessment of the current market landscape of vaccines and drugs being developed for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 infection, providing information on the developer(s), phase of development (clinical, preclinical, discovery) of product candidates, type of molecule (vaccines, antibodies, small molecules, others), mechanism of action, route of administration, funding agency, and key collaborators.
• A detailed clinical trial analysis of completed, ongoing and planned studies of candidates being evaluated for the treatment of COVID-19, highlighting prevalent trends across various relevant parameters, such as current trial status, trial registration date, enrolled patient population and regional distribution of trials, type of drug being evaluated, phase of development, study design, leading industry and non-industry players (in terms of number of trials conducted), study focus, and clinical endpoints.
• A detailed assessment of the diagnostic tests being developed for the diagnosis of COVID-19 infection, providing information on test developer(s), development geography, technology being used in the test, time to result, and, test sample type.
• An analysis depicting the prevalent and emerging trends related to this domain as represented on the social media platform, Twitter. In addition to providing information on day-on-day trends related to the volume of tweets, the analysis highlights the most frequently talked about areas, active players, and influential authors.
• An in-depth analysis of more than 2,100 grants that have been awarded to research institutes engaged in projects related to coronavirus, highlighting various important parameters associated with grants, such as year of award, support period, amount awarded, funding institute, administration institute center, funding institute center, funding mechanism, spending categorization, grant type, responsible study section, focus area, type of recipient organization and prominent program officers. It also features a detailed 2X2 plot comparing the key opinion leaders based on parameters, such as amount awarded and number of awarded grants.
• An analysis of the investments made across different companies/ academic institutes driving development efforts in this space. The analysis specifically highlights the key investors involved in this space.
• Elaborate profiles of the key players involved in vaccine / drug and diagnostic development. Each profile features a brief overview of the company, information on its development programs, details related to funding, and collaborations related to COVID-19.

Sample Insights

1. More than 30 drug developers presently claim to be developing drugs for the treatment of COVID-19 infections. The market landscape is fragmented, featuring a mix of companies of all sizes; however, large and very-large companies represent 60% of the overall number of industry stakeholders. It is worth highlighting that more than 30% of the developers involved in the development of therapeutic agents are academic institutes.
2. Besides DNA and RNA vaccines, companies are focused on monoclonal antibodies, as well as small molecule inhibitors. The majority of the companies are evaluating biologic drug candidates, while some of the players are working on repurposing previously approved small molecule drug candidates for the treatment of patients infected with COVID-19.
3. Close to 25 clinical trials have already been registered enrolling over 2000 patients, to date. More than 80% of the patients enrolled in the clinical trials are based in China. Some of the top clinical trial sponsors include (illustrative list)  Huazhong University of Science and Technology, French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, Beijing 302 Hospital, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Capital Medical University, and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
4. Over 40 diagnostic tests are under development for timely detection of the infection. More than 50% of the diagnostic tests are being developed by the companies based in Asia Pacific, with over 85% of these based in China and South Korea. Of the disclosed diagnostic tests, close to 60% are based on RT-PCR.
5. Evaluation of historical grant data has revealed over 140 KOLs related to coronavirus. Since 1995, over 2000 NIH funded grants have been awarded for research related to coronavirus with cumulative grant amount totaling over USD 2 billion, provided through various funding mechanisms.

All actual figures have been sourced and analyzed from publicly available information forums. Financial figures mentioned in this report are in USD, unless otherwise specified.