As European countries, including Italy, begin to slowly release public restrictions, major world leaders, organizations and banks raised 7.4 billion euros ($8 billion) for research to find a vaccine against COVID-19 in a virtual European Union summit, according to the Associated Press. Vaccine effort has been on the forefront of national reopening plans for many health expects assert the risk of a second wave of infection as the general public begins to move more freely. A vaccine will be one of the only avenues that will bring the coronavirus pandemic to its end.
The total was just shy of the European Unions' goal of 7.5 billion euros. Nevertheless, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that the funds will be used in a concerted effort to find a vaccine, better treatments and testing for the novel coronavirus. Guterres stressed that the amount raised is more of a "down-payment" and united effort must be sustained over time.
The United States was notably not present in the European Union conference, which extended to nations outside of Europe including Canada and Australia. The White House stated that the U.S. had raised its own coronavirus testing and treatment funds, as well President Donald Trump's vaccine fast track plan "Operation Warp Speed."
Total Global Cases: Over 3.5 Million
Total Deaths: Over 265,000
Total Recovered: Over 1.2 Million
Testing and Approval
Japan announced on Monday that the influenza drug designed by Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, a unit of Fujifilm Holdings (OTC: FUJIY), is now being tested as a treatment for the coronavirus in 43 countries. Known as favipiravir, sold under the name Avigan, the drug will be tested in clinical trials among patients with mild to moderate symptoms to test whether or not the drug has an effect on recovery. Favipiravir has one study conducted in China that showed some positive results in speeding a patient's recovery.
The World Health Organization stated during its Monday coronavirus press conference that the agency is planning on working with the U.S. government and biotech Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) to potentially make the antiviral drug remdesivir more widely available across the world.
Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the W.H.O's health emergencies program, found that the drug shows promise in treating the coronavirus, based on recent data the trial run by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Although the drug has not been formally approved to treat the virus, the drug has several ongoing studies taking place to test its effectiveness against COVID-19.
"We are grateful that the company Gilead and the director-general had direct discussions at the highest level to ensure that we had access to the remdesivir drug in order to launch the solidarity trials around the world," Ryan added.
On the other side of testing, the Food and Drug Administration stated on Monday that companies making a COVID-19 antibody test must apply for authorization by the agency within 10 days of their product's release. This move is to make sure that the tests available are accurate. According to CBS news, there are more than 200 antibody tests in the market and the FDA as only given emergency use authorization to 12 tests.
"We unfortunately see unscrupulous actors marketing fraudulent test kits and using the pandemic as an opportunity to take advantage of Americans' anxiety," The FDA issued in a statement.
Viral Tracing
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) released a sample code of example software using the companies' anonymous Bluetooth-signal contact tracing tools called ExposureNotification on Monday. The companies are going to leave the software building to the governments and other agencies that will implement the contact tracing tools into independently designed apps.