Vaccine May Be Available In Limited Supply To Some Health Care Workers As Early As The Fall

Bloomberg: Is There A Coronavirus Vaccine? Moderna May Release This Fall
Moderna Inc. said its experimental vaccine for Covid-19 could be available to a select few as soon as this fall, ahead of expectations for a commercial release in a year. Stephane Bancel, the biotech’s chief executive, told Goldman Sachs on Friday that mRNA-1273 could be made available to a few, potentially health-care workers, under emergency use authorization, according to a company statement. The vaccine was developed in partnership with Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Human testing started earlier this month. A potential vaccine is not expected to be commercially available for at least a year. Moderna is also scaling up manufacturing capacity so it can produce millions of doses each month, the company said. (Flanagan, 3/23)

Boston Globe: Moderna Might Seek Emergency Approval This Fall Of Coronavirus Vaccine For Health Care Workers 
Moderna last month became the first drug maker to deliver a potential COVID-19 vaccine for clinical trials to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. The institute helped develop the vaccine. Forty-five healthy volunteers on March 16 began receiving doses of the vaccine, which relies on custom-built messenger RNA to produce an immune response, in a clinical trial in Seattle. The first phase of the trial, at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, is scheduled to run about six weeks. If all goes well, the vaccine will then probably undergo two more phases of testing on many more people.Saltzman, 3/23)

Reuters: Singapore Scientists Study Genes To Fast-Track Coronavirus Vaccine
Scientists in Singapore say they have developed a way to track genetic changes that speeds testing of vaccines against a coronavirus that has killed more than 16,000 people worldwide. The scientists, at the city-state’s Duke-NUS Medical School, say their technique needs just days to evaluate potential vaccines provided by Arcturus Therapeutics, an American biotech firm the school has partnered with for the trials. (Aravindan, 3/24)

Politico: Trump Touts New York Coronavirus Trials As Progress Against Pandemic
President Donald Trump is hanging big hopes for defeating the coronavirus on a drug trial starting soon in New York, touting the potential benefits of an experimental combination that is only in the early stages of research. That therapy “probably is looking very, very good,” and the trial could start as early as Tuesday, Trump said at a Monday night press briefing on the coronavirus. Two clinical trials are set to begin in the state as early as this week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday morning ahead of the president's briefing. (Owermohle and Young, 3/23)

The Associated Press: Malaria Drugs' Promise For Coronavirus Spurs Hope, Shortages
Excitement about treating the new coronavirus with malaria drugs is raising hopes, including with President Donald Trump. But the evidence that they may help is thin, and a run on the drugs is complicating access for people who need them for rheumatoid arthritis or lupus. Chloroquine and a similar drug, hydroxychloroquine, showed encouraging signs in small, early tests against the coronavirus. But the drugs have major side effects, one reason scientists don’t want to give them without evidence of their value, even in this emergency. (Marchione, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Claim That Malaria Drugs Treat Coronavirus Sparks Warnings, Shortages
Health officials across the world are issuing warnings over the use of antimalarial drugs after President Trump’s comments about treating the coronavirus with them sparked panic-buying and overdoses. In recent days, thousands of consumers across Africa and South Asia rushed to stockpile chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, drugs that are usually used to combat malaria, vacuuming up supplies in cities in the developing world, sending prices skyrocketing and prompting panicked warnings from local authorities. (Parkinson and Gauthier-Villars, 3/23)

NBC News: 'Lifesaving' Lupus Drug In Short Supply After Trump Touts Possible Coronavirus Treatment
For nearly 30 years, Bonnie Lieberman has relied on a drug called Plaquenil to prevent a flare-up of symptoms associated with lupus: rashes, debilitating fatigue, "swollen, hot, painful joints." "This drug is lifesaving for me because it helps me function," she said. But when Lieberman, a preschool teacher from California, called her pharmacy Friday to check whether her new prescription was available, she got a startling reply. (Nadi, 3/23)

WBUR: Why Hoarding Of Hydroxychloroquine Needs To Stop 
A family of old antimalarial drugs — including one that some patients rely on to treat their lupus or rheumatoid arthritis — is becoming harder to get in the United States, pharmacists say, partly because of remarks President Trump has made, highlighting the drugs as a potential treatment for COVID-19. (Bebinger, 3/23)

The New York Times: Man Fatally Poisons Himself While Self-Medicating For Coronavirus, Doctor Says
An Arizona man died and his wife was hospitalized after officials said they treated themselves on Sunday with a deadly home remedy for the new coronavirus — a popular fish tank additive that has the same active ingredient as an anti-malaria drug. The drug, known as chloroquine phosphate or chloroquine, has been bandied about by President Trump during White House briefings on the coronavirus pandemic as a potential “game changer” in the treatment of Covid-19. (Vigdor, 3/24)

The Associated Press: Arizona Death Prompts Warning Against Self-Medication
It’s unclear if the couple took it specifically because of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, but now Banner Health is warning everyone to avoid self-medicating. “Given the uncertainty around COVID-19, we understand that people are trying to find new ways to prevent or treat this virus, but self-medicating is not the way to do so,” said Dr. Daniel Brooks, Banner Poison and Drug Information Center medical director. “The last thing that we want right now is to inundate our emergency departments with patients who believe they found a vague and risky solution that could potentially jeopardize their health.” (Galvan and Cooper, 3/24)

Stat: When Might Experimental Drugs To Treat Covid-19 Be Ready? A Forecast
There is a desperate need for new medicines to treat Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has shut down much of the world. A vaccine to prevent infection entirely would be even better. Drug companies and medical researchers are making heroic efforts to deliver new medicines. (Herper, 3/24)

Stat: Why Does Pharma Still Make Drugs Using A Slow, Batch-Based Process?
Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said so-called continuous manufacturing would prevent drug shortages, lower drug prices, and bring manufacturing back to the United States. Lawmakers have doled out millions to encourage it. There are predictions it could throw gasoline on the quest for flu treatments and now, potentially, coronavirus therapies. So why aren't most drug makers fully bought in? (Florko, 3/24)

NBC News: New York Will Be First State To Test Treatment Of Coronavirus With Blood From Recovered Patients
Hoping to stem the toll of the state’s surging coronavirus outbreak, New York health officials plan to begin collecting plasma from people who have recovered and injecting the antibody-rich fluid into patients still fighting the virus. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the plans during a news briefing Monday. The treatment, known as convalescent plasma, dates back centuries and was used during the flu epidemic of 1918 — in an era before modern vaccines and antiviral drugs. (Hixenbaugh, 3/23)

ABC News: Critical Inhaler Medication Shortage Looms As Coronavirus Cases Soar
When Brett Cavin went to a pharmacy last week in Gresham, Oregon, to pick up his inhaler prescription for his asthma, he was turned away and warned it could take up to a week for the pharmacy to replenish its supply. Cavin is not alone, according to doctors and pharmacists who spoke to ABC News. As emergency rooms and intensive care units across the country begin to fill with patients with COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, hospitals and pharmacies have run into a new shortage: albuterol inhalers, a critical rescue medication that expands a user's constricted airways and allows them to breath more easily. (Cook, 3/23)