Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day sight. Since
Speaker 1: coronavirus was declared a global pandemic our main story. So
Speaker 1: many companies and organizations have publicly entered the contest to
Speaker 1: develop a coronavirus vaccine, from Johnson and Johnson to the
Speaker 1: University of Oxford, But one drug giant with the storied
Speaker 1: history of battling pandemics, MERK, had said nothing but joining
Speaker 1: the race for months. Now we know it has been
Speaker 1: quietly developing two vaccine candidates and a pill to treat
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen, but the drug maker is hesitant to commit
Speaker 1: to a quick timeline. But first, here's what happened today.
Speaker 1: The ranks of people collecting unemployment in the US shrank
Speaker 1: for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began. It's
Speaker 1: a sign people are starting to return to work. But
Speaker 1: make no mistake, millions of Americans still filed new jobless claims,
Speaker 1: a measure of the ongoing benefit claims and state programs,
Speaker 1: fell to twenty one point one million, according to the
Speaker 1: Labor Department. Analysts had expected the number to rise. Despite
Speaker 1: the positive sign, economists expect the recovery from the pandemic
Speaker 1: to take years, and with no vaccine or significant treatment yet,
Speaker 1: it's unlikely will return to normal activity anytime soon. A
Speaker 1: new drug cocktail is getting tested and hope scientists can
Speaker 1: find a stronger weapon against COVID nineteen. RASH Holding and
Speaker 1: Gilead Sciences are starting a trial of Rash's immune suppressor
Speaker 1: at Temera, used along with Gilad's anti viral drug remdesvere.
Speaker 1: Remdesivie is the only drug that's been shown to fight
Speaker 1: the virus so far. While anti virals like remdesivie try
Speaker 1: to stop viruses from replicating, drugs like a Temera, often
Speaker 1: used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, fight inflammation, a symptom of
Speaker 1: the virus that can be just as damaging as the
Speaker 1: infection itself. Finally, Latin America is on a frightening coronavirus trajectory.
Speaker 1: In March, when COVID nineteen was stamping out lives across
Speaker 1: the globe, the region looked like it might escape relatively unharmed,
Speaker 1: but now it has become the new epicenter of coronavirus.
Speaker 1: Latin American countries now account for about of daily deaths globally.
Speaker 1: Brazil has more cases than any country except the US.
Speaker 1: Mexico had its largest single increase in both cases and
Speaker 1: deaths this week, and at hop health official said about
Speaker 1: thirty thousand people may die. Peru, Chili, and Columbia have
Speaker 1: all set daily records in the past week and now
Speaker 1: our main story. Out of the numerous organizations racing to
Speaker 1: develop a COVID vaccine, US drug giant Mark has recently
Speaker 1: emerged as a front runner. The drug maker is at
Speaker 1: work on not one, but two prospective vaccine candidates, drawing
Speaker 1: on its experience with ebola and measles and oculations as
Speaker 1: a foundation for its COVID nineteen research. The company is
Speaker 1: also developing a coronavirus pill, one that would stem infections
Speaker 1: faster and easier. Although the company has refused to give
Speaker 1: firm timelines for its research, it has pledged to make
Speaker 1: its vaccines and pill available globally. I spoke with Bloomberg's
Speaker 1: Riley Griffin to learn more about Mark's initiatives to fight
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen. What is Mark doing to help fight coronavirus
Speaker 1: over the last century, Really, they've been a key player
Speaker 1: as it pertains to public health crisis. Now after nearly
Speaker 1: six months since we first discovered what the novel coronavirus
Speaker 1: really was, we're finally hearing from them. They've been leading
Speaker 1: a quiet effort to reach multiple deals and secure federal
Speaker 1: funding to develop two vaccines and a pill to actually
Speaker 1: treat patients. And so this is really interesting because I
Speaker 1: think a lot of us have been hearing a lot
Speaker 1: about the vaccine work that's been done or is being
Speaker 1: worked on by many different, many different organizations. How is
Speaker 1: the pill different? The pill is a really interesting one. Actually.
Speaker 1: It's an oral anti viral candidate that's in early clinical development.
Speaker 1: It was purchased by Mark from a small company called
Speaker 1: ridge Back bio Therapeutics UM and was originally discovered at
Speaker 1: Emory University. This drug has been a little bit under
Speaker 1: the radar in the public in the public eye, but
Speaker 1: this announcement that came on May twenty six that it
Speaker 1: had agreed to buy the rights was was fairly novel.
Speaker 1: I had the opportunity to speak with Mark CEO Kenneth
Speaker 1: Fraser Um, and his perspective on this drug is that
Speaker 1: it actually has the potential to be easier to use
Speaker 1: than Gilead's ram desiviere if successful. I'm sure, many of
Speaker 1: our listeners have actually heard about Gilead's ram desiviere, a
Speaker 1: drug that has been shown to alleviate COVID nineteen in
Speaker 1: some patients in the hospital setting. But this is an
Speaker 1: oral drug, which is different. Right, It's not um injected
Speaker 1: in the I c U and as such means that
Speaker 1: it's easily deployed. It's more easily made, and in Kenneth
Speaker 1: Fraser's perspective, has the potential to have greater impact at
Speaker 1: the global scale. And you bring up a really important point,
Speaker 1: who will get these pills first globally um And according
Speaker 1: to Mark, what is their plan for distribution? I think
Speaker 1: Mark's overarching strategy here and how they see themselves fitting
Speaker 1: into this ecosystem of pharmaceutical players trying to develop vaccines
Speaker 1: and therapeutics to combat the pandemic is where can they
Speaker 1: have impact and influence at a global scale. So when
Speaker 1: I when I spoke with CEO Ken Fraser, he said,
Speaker 1: in every case in which they tried to outline, for example,
Speaker 1: a vaccine that could be incorporated into the pipeline brought
Speaker 1: into the fold of their work, they wanted to hit
Speaker 1: three things. First, they wanted to make sure that this
Speaker 1: vaccine used existing technology that had been proven as safe
Speaker 1: and efficacious in other diseases. Second, they wanted to make
Speaker 1: sure that the vaccine could be effective in a single dose.
Speaker 1: That changes how much output a company has to reach
Speaker 1: in terms of the manufacturing process. If you can ensure
Speaker 1: that in one dose you can immunize someone from the
Speaker 1: novel coronavirus, that is the potential to be more easily
Speaker 1: implemented on the ground. So what Mark is saying here
Speaker 1: is they want a one shot, a one dose vaccine
Speaker 1: that can be deployable. They want to develop vaccines that
Speaker 1: could use technology or platforms that have already been proven
Speaker 1: to work safely and effectively in people. Mark is relying
Speaker 1: on their existing research and existing experience with other diseases
Speaker 1: and other vaccines. For example, you you touched on their
Speaker 1: experience with ebola, and I believe even measles factors into this,
Speaker 1: and I was just wondering if you might unpack how
Speaker 1: their experience with these two ebola and measles can inform
Speaker 1: their work on developing, say the vaccine against COVID nineteen.
Speaker 1: So Mark reached a deal with the International AIDS Vaccine
Speaker 1: Initiative to develop a vaccine that would adapt a technology
Speaker 1: already used in its Ebola shot. And remember, Mark is
Speaker 1: the only drugmaker that exists out there that has an
Speaker 1: f d A approved Ebola virus vaccine. That is incredibly
Speaker 1: important here, and that's what makes Mark so different from
Speaker 1: many of its peers is it has done this kind
Speaker 1: of work in global pandemic form and it's looking to
Speaker 1: its experience with the Ebola virus vaccine to ultimately bring
Speaker 1: a COVID nineteen vaccine to market. So that's one of
Speaker 1: the twovaccines. The second candidate that they've settled on, they
Speaker 1: announced they would buy themiss A privately held biotechnology company
Speaker 1: for an undisclosed sum, but in turn gaining a vaccine
Speaker 1: candidate that it uses an existing measles virus vector platform.
Speaker 1: And what if any are Marks estimates in terms of
Speaker 1: time scale? How long will it take to develop these
Speaker 1: vaccines and this pill. I think what Mirk would tell you,
Speaker 1: and as they've told me, is that they just have
Speaker 1: a legacy of experience in developing these kinds of vaccinations.
Speaker 1: But that also makes them reluctant to commit to aggressive
Speaker 1: timelines some that we've heard touted by health officials right
Speaker 1: Mark's Chief Patient Officer, Julie Gerberding, said that it may
Speaker 1: take more time to develop a successful and efficacious COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen vaccine. She says that while she's optimistic that companies
Speaker 1: across the world might be able to meet those timelines,
Speaker 1: she knows from experience they've they've done this kind of work.
Speaker 1: They're looking to Ebola and their work developing an Ebola
Speaker 1: virus vaccine to guide them in which kinds of technologies
Speaker 1: may be efficacious or may lead to efficacious vaccines, or,
Speaker 1: as Ken Fraser says, they're starting with a platform. They
Speaker 1: understand how the platform works, they understand how to scale
Speaker 1: it up, and that serves as really useful information when
Speaker 1: plugging in a new kind of virus. He described one
Speaker 1: as a hardware and a software. These platforms they're the hardware,
Speaker 1: are information about the coronavirus. That's the software that they
Speaker 1: need to plug and play. So in this case, they're
Speaker 1: looking to existing frameworks to shuttle forth new technology. You know,
Speaker 1: we've heard about so many other research organizations and toots
Speaker 1: working on vaccines. Why are we only hearing about merk now.
Speaker 1: Mark has been quieter about their vaccine and drug development
Speaker 1: efforts over the last few months as many other contenders
Speaker 1: have come forth, So big news from a company that
Speaker 1: has a legacy in vaccinations, has considered itself a global
Speaker 1: health leader, developed the very first vaccine for the bolavirus.
Speaker 1: It's a monumental time for the company and Ken Frasier,
Speaker 1: who announced succession plans for a new CEO to fill
Speaker 1: his shoes. Um, he's he's in it in the moment
Speaker 1: and he thinks continuity of leadership is important and it's
Speaker 1: all coming at a very important time for this company.
Speaker 1: That was Riley Griffin and that's our show today. For
Speaker 1: coverage of the outbreak from on the bureaus around the world,
Speaker 1: visit Bloomberg dot com Flash Coronavirus and if you like
Speaker 1: the show, please leave us a review and a rating
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to
Speaker 1: help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily
Speaker 1: edition is produced by Topher Foreheaz, Jordan Gaspure, Magnus Hendrickson
Speaker 1: and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by
Speaker 1: Riley Griffin. Original music by Leo Sidran. Our editors are
Speaker 1: Francesco Levi and Rick Shawn Francesca Levi is Bloomberg's head
Speaker 1: of podcasts. Thanks for listening.