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Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day two hundred

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Speaker 1: and seventy two since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic.

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Speaker 1: Today's main story. We spoke to the man at the

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Speaker 1: center of Operation warp speed, the government's effort to quickly

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Speaker 1: secure a vaccine and treatment options for the pandemic. But first,

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Speaker 1: here's what happened in virus news today. The Food and

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Speaker 1: Drug Administration is preparing to clear Fiser's COVID nineteen vaccine

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Speaker 1: as soon as this weekend. That's according to top US

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Speaker 1: health officials. But first, the f d A is scrutinizing

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Speaker 1: recent reports that people who received the vaccine had allergic reactions.

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Speaker 1: One of the last things the f d A does

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Speaker 1: before clearing a product for public use is to make

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Speaker 1: sure the instructions on the label include up to date

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Speaker 1: information about who should use it and how. In the

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Speaker 1: past several days, there have been reports of serious allergic

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Speaker 1: reactions to the vaccine in the UK. After starting immunizations

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Speaker 1: on Tuesday, the UK's National Health Service said people with

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Speaker 1: a significant history of allergies shouldn't receive the shot. New York,

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Speaker 1: once the epicenter of the COVID nineteen pandemic sits on

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Speaker 1: the brink of breaking its case record from last spring,

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Speaker 1: But the impact of this latest surge is very different

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Speaker 1: from those nightmarish early days. Patients are spending less time

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Speaker 1: in the hospital and are less likely to receive intensive

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Speaker 1: procedures like intubation. Daily deaths are not spiking as sharply

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Speaker 1: as cases, but that doesn't necessarily mean New York is

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Speaker 1: in the clear year, especially with the Christmas and New

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Speaker 1: Year holidays approaching. For now, the state is saving off

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Speaker 1: repercussions from the current spike in cases, with ample hospital

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Speaker 1: capacity and one of the nation's lowest death rates. Dozens

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Speaker 1: of other states are being overridden with hospitalizations and seeing

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Speaker 1: deaths climb to new highs. The question is how long

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Speaker 1: can New York keep the worst effects of the virus

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Speaker 1: at bay. Finally, Germany's daily coronavirus cases and deaths rose

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Speaker 1: yesterday by the largest amount since the pandemic began. Germany

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Speaker 1: closed bars, gyms, and cinemas in early November, but allowed

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Speaker 1: schools and other businesses to continue operating. The partial shutdown

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Speaker 1: has so far failed to slow the spread of the disease,

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Speaker 1: and now for today's main story. At the center of

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Speaker 1: Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's program to accelerate the

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Speaker 1: development of COVID treatments and vaccines, is a man named

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Speaker 1: Manset Sloughy. Dr Slowi is chief scientific advisor for the operation,

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Speaker 1: and is trying to leverage decades of pharma experience to

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Speaker 1: secure deals that can help curb the pandemic. Riley Griffin

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Speaker 1: spoke to him about the possibility that his work might

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Speaker 1: accelerate a treatment for the deadliest COVID nineteen cases, a

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Speaker 1: critical step in the months before a vaccine is widely available. So, Riley,

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Speaker 1: you recently spoke with Dr Monsef Sloughi, the chief scientific

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Speaker 1: advisor for Operation Warp Speed, and I was hoping you

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Speaker 1: might just tell us exactly who is Doctor Slowly and

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Speaker 1: perhaps some of the responsibilities associated with his role. Dr

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Speaker 1: mans of Slowly is a bit of a rock star

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Speaker 1: in the pharmaceutical industry. He spent thirty years at Glaxo

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Speaker 1: smith Klein, one of the world's largest drugmakers, and there

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Speaker 1: he actually led their vaccine unit. He's a renowned immunologist,

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Speaker 1: and he had retired from GSK prior to stepping up

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Speaker 1: at Operation Warp Speed. He was sitting on various boards

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Speaker 1: Madernas included, and was also working in venture capital. Back

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Speaker 1: in the spring, he was tapped by the White House

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Speaker 1: to serve as the Chief Scientific Advisor for Operation Warp Speed,

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Speaker 1: which was really bringing his scientific expertise to the table

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Speaker 1: to be able to select vaccines and therapeutics. So he

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Speaker 1: works together with the Department of Defense, which is handling

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Speaker 1: the logistical side of things distribution to hospitals, for example,

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Speaker 1: and he is the brains behind the science which vaccine makers,

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Speaker 1: which therapeutics are we aiming to tap, and he facilitates

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Speaker 1: conversations with those industry executives who he has known for years.

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Speaker 1: Our mission was to enable to accelerate make up evermicines

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Speaker 1: or vaccines for patients as quickly as possible. Perhaps you

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Speaker 1: might walk us through some of the companies that he

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Speaker 1: has been reaching out to and some of the drugs

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Speaker 1: and therapeutics he secured in terms of how to fight

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Speaker 1: COVID nineteen. In late September, Dr Sloughy got an email

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Speaker 1: from Janet Woodcock and Janet Woodcock as a US regulator

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Speaker 1: who has recused herself from typical duties to lead up

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Speaker 1: the search for new therapeutics to combat COVID nineteen, and

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Speaker 1: Dr Woodcock had sent slowly an email containing a slide

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Speaker 1: deck with new data from this tiny little company called

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Speaker 1: uncle Immune, a ten person company based in the Mayor, Ireland.

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Speaker 1: Uncle Immune had reported out late stage trial data from

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Speaker 1: a tiny trial that appeared to have the risk of

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Speaker 1: death among hospitalized COVID nineteen patients with the most advanced

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Speaker 1: cases of the disease. He quite literally muttered under his breath,

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, we just met the whole company, and

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Speaker 1: there's people, and here is this enormous task of making

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Speaker 1: a life saving drug. The best clinical data I had

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Speaker 1: seen by then. We need to have a we need

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Speaker 1: to have a deal strategy. It was the best data

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Speaker 1: he had seen to date in terms of improving survival

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Speaker 1: amongst severe and critical COVID nineteen patients in need of oxygen.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps you can unpack just what makes this drug so effective.

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Speaker 1: So uncle Immune was developing a drug called c d FC.

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Speaker 1: This research that had led to CD twenty four FC,

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Speaker 1: which was it's not approved on the market, it's an

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Speaker 1: experimental product, had two decades of work going into it.

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Speaker 1: The husband and wife couple that lead up onco immune

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Speaker 1: and had founded the company. They began developing the drug

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Speaker 1: in two thousand two to treat autoimmune diseases, and I'll

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Speaker 1: take you through one moment, because in two thousand nine

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Speaker 1: their laboratory made a very specific breakthrough. The scientists found

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Speaker 1: that mice lacking a specific protein called CD twenty four,

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Speaker 1: for which the drug is named, would mount a massive

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Speaker 1: immune response if given too much tile in all experience

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Speaker 1: liver failure and die overnight. But meanwhile, mice with the

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Speaker 1: protein could control that response. So based on this finding,

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Speaker 1: the husband and wife duo began studying whether or not

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Speaker 1: the experimental medicine could modulate the immune system with diseases

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Speaker 1: that caused cell death. Fast forward to the COVID nineteen pandemic,

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Speaker 1: and one thing that we've learned is that some of

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Speaker 1: the deadliest cases actually occur because of the bodies immune

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Speaker 1: response to fight the virus. Most to contract COVID nineteen

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Speaker 1: developed mild to moderate symptoms, things like fevers, sore throats,

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Speaker 1: dry coughs, but then they recover. Now with those who

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Speaker 1: progress to the hospital, often what happens is their immune

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Speaker 1: system kicks into overdrive and ravages the body's own cells

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Speaker 1: and tissues, and we found that this actually often hits

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Speaker 1: the lungs the hardest, and that's why it's difficult for

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Speaker 1: so many to breathe, and that's why many ultimately get intimated.

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Speaker 1: And so as soon as that became clear that this

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Speaker 1: there was something we needed to learn about the immune

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Speaker 1: response to covid, uncle immune refocus their research and by

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Speaker 1: late September they had very promising clinical trial results that

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Speaker 1: they aimed to pass on to operation warp speed. This

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Speaker 1: sounds like a very promising drug, but Riley, can you

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Speaker 1: explain why this drug might be better than some of

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Speaker 1: the others that we have available in terms of treating

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Speaker 1: COVID nineteen. You know, the interesting thing about that question

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Speaker 1: is the reality is we don't have many drugs to

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Speaker 1: treat COVID nineteen. Only one, remedsivier, is actually approved for

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Speaker 1: use against COVID nineteen, So doctors at this moment really

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Speaker 1: don't have a robust arsenal to combat the disease when

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Speaker 1: patients show up in the hospital. We've got Gilelead Sciences

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Speaker 1: anti viral remed azevier, which has been shown to speed

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Speaker 1: recovery but hasn't been proven to reduce deaths, and actually

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Speaker 1: the who has been fairly contentious in suggesting that the

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Speaker 1: benefit isn't great for remed azevier. And then we've got

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Speaker 1: dex and metha zone, which is this decades old, very

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Speaker 1: cheap steroid that seems to tamp down inflammation, but it's

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Speaker 1: got a limited mortality benefit. And the two drugs are

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Speaker 1: often given together in the hospitalized setting, but they're not

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Speaker 1: great onco immune and Mark are betting that cd f

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Speaker 1: C will become the new standard of care. And that

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Speaker 1: was Dr Slowe's gut reaction when he saw the data,

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Speaker 1: and he knew that he'd have to get it to

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Speaker 1: a big pharmaceutical company to ultimately scale up production and

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Speaker 1: bring it to patients. We came to the strategic perspective

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Speaker 1: that there was no way a company with ten people

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Speaker 1: that have done an amazing job to find a drug

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Speaker 1: that can prevent or more of deaths, relatively in patients

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Speaker 1: that are highly advancing their disease. The only way to

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Speaker 1: really accelerate and and was to the death in the

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Speaker 1: hands of a very big player, which I'm very happy

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Speaker 1: we introduced them to, among others, to Mark and Roger

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Speaker 1: went on and acquired them and that he'd made the

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Speaker 1: right decision. So Riley walk us through the steps of

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Speaker 1: how Dr Sloughy facilitated this new relationship between onco Immune

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Speaker 1: and Mark. It's a great question and it gets at

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Speaker 1: the heart of this story about how Dr Slowe has

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Speaker 1: leveraged his personal connections to get deals done. Let me

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Speaker 1: take you back to late September when Dr Sloughy and

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Speaker 1: Janet Woodcock and other Operation warp Speed officials took a

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Speaker 1: field trip to Rockville, Maryland. They're Sloughy and Woodcock ventured

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Speaker 1: inside a drab and unassuming laboratory belonging to the little

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Speaker 1: known biotech called uncle Immune. And as the Warp Speed

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Speaker 1: leaders toward the facility and met with staff, they really

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Speaker 1: couldn't disguise the look of shock on their faces. They're

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Speaker 1: going to be overwhelmed by the needs and the requirements of,

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Speaker 1: you know, providing a lifesaving drug for pandemic. They're gonna

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Speaker 1: need help. Dr lou the CEO of Uncle Immune, said

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Speaker 1: to me later in an interview quote, I think they

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Speaker 1: were surprised that the place was in such shambles. People

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Speaker 1: think you need a large operation to pull something like

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Speaker 1: this off. And while he pulled off incredible research. What

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Speaker 1: he recognizes that he couldn't ultimately do was bring forth

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Speaker 1: the manufacturing firepower needed to scale this up, and do

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Speaker 1: so quickly at what one might call warp speed. Ultimately,

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Speaker 1: Dr Slowly knows that he needs to play matchmaker, and

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Speaker 1: he turned to his rolodex of pharmaceutical industry CEOs and

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Speaker 1: heads of R and D and blasted off half a

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Speaker 1: dozen emails immediately. The players I contacted I did on

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Speaker 1: purpose contact players that are involved in experience and expertise

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Speaker 1: in two areas. One is in an inflammation because this

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Speaker 1: medicine works through the emun inflammation motive action. And secondly

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Speaker 1: have bio pharmaceutic manufacturing. It would be optimately if they

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Speaker 1: had these two expertises, and the number of others do too.

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Speaker 1: I wasn't behind the scenes there at all. I just

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Speaker 1: wanted to. Within days, he was facilitating connections between the

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Speaker 1: CEO of Uncle Immune and these major drug companies. And

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Speaker 1: this is important because typically biotechs and academic institutes have

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Speaker 1: to go through they have to go through levels of

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Speaker 1: bureaucracy among these big pharma players. They start with the

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Speaker 1: business development folks and they work their way up, but

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Speaker 1: Dr Slawi was making a connection right to the top

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Speaker 1: to facilitate deals quickly. By late November, Merk ultimately acquired

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Speaker 1: onco Immune for four million in cash and had hashed

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Speaker 1: out plans for large scale production of the treatment. That

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Speaker 1: will be their task moving forward is manufacturing this at

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Speaker 1: scale and doing so quickly enough to treat all of

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Speaker 1: those who are in hospitals here in the US when

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Speaker 1: they need it. And the cherry on the top of

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Speaker 1: all of this news is that Operation Warp Speed is

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Speaker 1: currently in talks with Mark to buy that supply, aiming

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Speaker 1: to distribute the drug to hospitalize patients in the first

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Speaker 1: half of twenty twenty one. We are negotiating to come

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Speaker 1: to a finite agreement in good faith with Mark to

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Speaker 1: have access to mention and make it available to patients

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Speaker 1: for sure. That was Riley Griffin and that's it for

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Speaker 1: our show today. For coverage of the outbreak from one

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Speaker 1: twenty bureaus around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash

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Speaker 1: coronavirus and if you like the show, please leave us

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Speaker 1: a review in a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Speaker 1: It's the best way to help more listeners find our

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Speaker 1: global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is produced by Tophur.

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Speaker 1: Foreheads Jordan Gospoure, Magnus Henrickson, and me Laura Carlson. Today's

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Speaker 1: main story was reported by Riley Griffin. Original music by

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Speaker 1: Leo sidrin Our. Editors are Rick Shine and Francesca Levi.

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Speaker 1: Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thank thus for listening.

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Speaker 1: H