COVID-19 vaccines and treatments

As clinical trials related to COVID-19 continue to ramp up, the focus next week will start to shift on which vaccines and treatments have the best chance to make it to mass production. There has been a lot of discussion about

• Gilead Sciences' (NASDAQ:GILD) remdesivir, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals' (NASDAQ:REGN) cocktail antibodies and 
• Moderna's (NASDAQ:MRNA) vaccine candidate. 

Other companies racing ahead with vaccine trials at various stages include

• BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX), 
• Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), 
• Dynavax Technologies (DVAX), 
• Vaxart (NASDAQ:VXRT), 
• GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), 
• Heat Biologics (NASDAQ:HTBX), 
• Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:INO), 
• Translate Bio (NASDAQ:TBIO), 
• Heron Therapeutics (HRTX)
• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), 
• Arcturus Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ARCT), CSL Behring and Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX). Treatment candidates are being worked on by privately-held CalciMedica, Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN), 
• Adaptive Biotechnologies (ADPT), Takeda Pharmaceutical (NYSE:TAK), CytoDyn (OTCQB:CYDY), Roche Holdings (OTCQX:RHHBY), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Tiziana Life Sciences (NASDAQ:TLSA), Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR), Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY), Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) and more.

News:

• (7/16/20) Dynavax (DVAX) and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have entered into a collaboration to develop a universal influenza vaccine. Mount Sinai's current work in this area is funded under a contract award as part of the Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers (CIVICs) program. The Mount Sinai CIVICs team will evaluate a novel approach they have developed called chimeric hemagglutinin designed to protect against all strains of influenza in combination with Dynavax's CpG 1018TM adjuvant.
• (7/16/20) Heron Therapeutics (HRTX) announced the initiation of the GUARDS-1 Study, a Phase 2 clinical study evaluating CINVANTI (aprepitant) injectable emulsion in early hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The study initiation follows clearance from the FDA of Heron's Investigational New Drug application for CINVANTI for the treatment of COVID-19.