The United States (US) Secretary of Health Alex Azar said that a potential vaccine for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) had been developed by US scientists at Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. and on Monday the US Food and Drug Administration authorised the "entry of that vaccine into Phase 1 clinical trials,". Scientists will inject the vaccine in the first patient a month from now and drugs to treat the novel coronavirus could be available by this summer or fall, according to the QNA.

Inovio, Moderna, Regeneron were three of the 10 companies that were part of the U.S. Coronavirus Task Force at the White House on Monday at the White House to discuss progress on treatments for the coronavirus (COVID-19), which has continued to spread across the world.

Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. - the only pharmaceutical company to have a phase 2 vaccine for the coronavirus that caused the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), is still working toward that milestone but achieving successful results will be the bigger deal, as written on the KPBS website.

Inovio mentioned yesterday that it was speeding up the timeline for developing a vaccine that can treat the coronavirus (COVID-19) that has infected almost 89,000 people world over and caused over 3,000 deaths already.

The Inovio Chief Executive Dr. J. Joseph Kim told the U.S. Coronavirus Task Force at the White House, that they had designed its DNA vaccine INO-4800 in three hours after the publication of the genetic sequence of the virus, called COVID-19.

"We immediately began preclinical testing and small-scale manufacture and have already shared robust pre-clinical data with our public and private partners.

"We plan to begin human clinical trials in the U.S. in April and soon thereafter in China and South Korea, where the outbreak is impacting the most people."

Inovio hopes to deliver one million doses of the vaccine by year-end, using its existing resources, but will also need additional resources to develop more vaccines, according to Market Watch.

Moderna Therapeutics

Moderna submitted vials of its coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for phase one trials in the US just 42 days after identifying the key RNA sequence to target, and a trial in humans could start in less than two months, while it might take a year and a half for a vaccine to reach the public, according to the Market Insider.

Regeneron

Regeneron hopes to have its coronavirus treatment produced and ready for human testing possibly by August in a first-in-human clinical trial sponsored by the NIAID. The safety and tolerability of the drug will be studied in 48 patients, based on what the Pharmaceutical Technology website states.

Other companies that are developing coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines/drugs

Moderna, Regeneron and Inovio, which are developing treatment options for the coronavirus (COVID-19) with the Department of Health and Human Services, are not the only companies pursuing treatment of this infectious disease and in the process of developing a vaccine and/or drug to treat the coronavirus (COVID-19) in patients infected with this disease. Other pharmaceutical companies like Beijing Advaccine Biotechnology, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Clover Biopharmaceuticals,
GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur also are doing so.

For a complete listing of pharmaceutical companies around the world that are in the process of developing a treatment for the coronavirus (COVID), click on the following link from the Pharmaceutical Technology website: https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/analysis/coronavirus-mers-cov-drugs/

How long do you think it will take to develop a vaccine or drug to treat the coronavirus (COVID-19) and combat the spread of the infection? Do let us know in our Comments section. Like and share the article - it keeps us going!

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Nabeela

Content Writer

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