Gilead poised to upend market with its first Covid-19 study data

Company-run study data expected by the end of next week
By Cristin Flanagan | Bloomberg |

BLOOMBERG - Gilead Sciences Inc., whose Covid-19 treatment has whipsawed markets amid conflicting early reports about its efficacy, is set to report the first results from a company-sponsored study of the experimental drug.

Data from the first 400 severely ill coronavirus patients being treated with Remdesivir in an open-label study are expected before the end of next week. While not expected to provide a definitive answer on efficacy, the report is likely to again trigger wide swings in Gilead’s shares and the broader market. Options prices show investors expect a more than 9% move in the drugmaker’s stock price over the next week.

University of California, Riverside virologist Juliet Morrison expressed a similar sentiment. “We still don’t have the raw data, but it doesn’t seem impressive to me,” she said in a phone interview after the China data reports. For diseases like Covid-19 driven by a patient’s own immune system, “antivirals are unlikely to work. And they won’t be helpful at the severe stages of the disease when the virus is not the driving factor,” she said.

READ THE article

 

Let us help you with your search