Use this locator to find a coronavirus test site near you

A pair of startups from within the Georgetown University Venture Lab has launched a new web tool called the COVID-19 Testing Locator that lets users know how far away they are from testing locations and where they can find the closest site that will test them for the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Anyone in the US can access the COVID-19 Testing Locator for free starting today by visiting www.covid19testing.today. The locator’s features include showing users how far away they are from testing facilities, allowing users to view contact information for the facility if that data is available, and letting users filter locations based on preferences — such as whether it’s drive-thru only, focused only on children, or geared towards senior citizens.
“As the COVID-19 pandemic has expanded in the United States, many companies have teamed up to provide education resources to keep the American public updated on (this) rapidly evolving disease,” said Raakin Iqbal, founder of The Social App, which launched the tool along with another startup, Basil Labs. “We want to provide people with a centralized area to find testing locations and feel a sense of empowerment in an atmosphere that has most of us feeling otherwise in the dark on the information. Our goal was to build a platform for the common good.”
The goal here is for the test locator to eventually help eliminate medical silos and “foster an ecosystem of trust through an open knowledge culture,” at a time when hospitals, governments, nonprofits, and Americans themselves need reliable data and information about this virus more than ever.
After enough data is collected, The COVID-19 Testing Locator team said in a news release it plans to create visualizations and address pain points for testing centers to allow them to better manage their resources when supplying treatment or handling logistics. The initiative is also looking to team up with city governments to help them identify coronavirus hot spots.
“Across the country, COVID-19 testing sites are popping up but are not communicating enough with one another,” said Basil Labs founder Theo Goetemann. “This is dangerous. Silos lead to information gaps between facilities and slow adaptation of best practices.
“We don’t have time to wait — testing sites are maxed out and hospital beds are filled up. We need to survey and understand patient experiences in order to maximize efficiency and safety at testing centers, improve in-patient flows and share this knowledge with testing centers across the nation and world.”
https://nypost.com/2020/04/08/use-this-locator-to-find-a-coronavirus-test-site-near-you/

White House to form another coronavirus task force

President Trump is expected to announce soon that it will form a coronavirus task force devoted to getting the economy restarted, Reuters reports, citing a senior administration official.

Earlier this week, Trump said he was considering the idea.

The new group is expected to include White House Senior Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The original White House coronavirus task force, led by Vice President Mike Pence and including health experts Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci, is focusing on slowing the spread of COVID-19 and finding treatments and a vaccine.

Trump has said that he’ll rely on input from health officials before making a decision on when to re-open the nation’s businesses.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3559759-white-house-to-form-another-coronavirus-task-force-reuters

Sanofi CEO Talks Coronavirus Vaccine Development, Potential Treatment

France-based global drugmaker Sanofi SA SNY 0.71% is working on developing a coronavirus vaccine under the assumption the pandemic will resume “in some form” into 2021, CEO Paul Hudson said Wednesday in a Fox Business interview.

Coronavirus Vaccine By Mid-2021?

Sanofi’s potential vaccine against the coronavirus is unlikely to be made available until mid-2021, Hudson said.
This timeline represents “unprecedented speed,” as it typically takes 10 years to develop a vaccine from start to finish, the CEO said.
The problem with creating a coronavirus vaccine is that it will be administered to already healthy people, so an 18-month timeline ensures the company is “doing it the right way,” he said.
“We are confident we will get there,” Hudson said. “I think people need to know we will get there and we are leaving nothing on the table.”
Hydroxychloroquine Treatment For Coronavirus? 
During the early stages of the coronavirus spread, doctors across the world were “very desperate” to come up with potential solutions, Hudson said. Doctors started to report anecdotal evidence of success in patients who were given hydroxychloroquine, sold by Sanofi under the brand name Plaquenil.
Sanofi partnered with the World Health Organization and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc REGN 0.95% to make sure clinical data is built at a fast pace across the U.S. and Europe to show “that these treatments really are the right proven intervention,” the CEO said.
Hydroxychloroquine is being given away by Sanofi for free, and if the science backs its ability to treat the disease, Sanofi pledges that “everyone gets access” to the medication, Hudson said.
Hydroxychloroquine and Sanofi’s azithromycin have been approved for the treatment of other conditions and are already understood by the medical community, he said.
The company expects to have evidence in “a week or two” to show it can be beneficial, the CEO said, adding that at that point, doctors and health care professionals can make a “really credible choice” in how they treat patients.
For the time being, the CEO said it would be “wrong to jump the gun” and offer any sort of guidance or expectations on ongoing trials. There are “tight rules” over what data can be shared and when, he said.
Hudson said he promises to share data “as far and wide as possible” when it’s possible to do so.
https://www.benzinga.com/news/20/04/15768782/sanofi-ceo-talks-coronavirus-vaccine-development-potential-treatment

Clovis Oncology Analyst Turns Bearish Ahead Of PDUFA Date For Rubraca

Despite optimistic expectations concerning label expansion for Clovis Oncology Inc’s CLVS 3.1% Rubraca to include prostate cancer, an analyst at BofA Securities is turning bearish on the stock.

The Clovis Analyst

Tazeen Ahmad downgraded Clovis shares from Neutral to Underperform but maintained a $6 price target.

The Clovis Thesis

The recent run in Clovis shares indicates a high likelihood of the FDA approving Rubraca in second line BRCA+ metastatic castration-resistance prostate cancer, or mCRPC, by the May 15 PDUFA date, Ahmad said in a Thursday note. (See the analyst’s track record here.)
AstraZeneca plc’s AZN 2.22% competing PARP inhibitor — Lynparza — is also being reviewed for a potentially broader HRR+ label in second-line mCRPC, the analyst said.
Assuming a 15% peak penetration in the U.S. BRCA+ market, BofA estimates peak non-risk-adjusted worldwide sales of $150 million for Rubraca in mCRPC.
Ahmad said he would also wait and see whether the COVID-19 pandemic will impact Clovis’ early launch trajectory.
Once on therapy, Rubraca’s oral dosing could prove helpful, the analyst said.
A broader label for AstraZeneca to include ATM mutations could be perceived as favorable, especially among community-based doctors at the onset, he said.
BofA models risk-adjusted peak sales of $579 million for Rubraca in 2028 across all indications.
“Upside risks are a faster-than-expected ramp from prostate indication on top of its ongoing ovarian launch as well as value from CLVS’ pipeline.”
https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/20/04/15775246/clovis-oncology-analyst-turns-bearish-ahead-of-pdufa-date-for-rubraca

Morgan Stanley Downgrades Lilly On Valuation, Says Growth, Premium in Line

Eli Lilly And Co LLY 0.77% stock has outperformed its big pharma peers, prompting an analyst at Morgan Stanley to turn cautious on the stock.

The Lilly Analyst

David Risinger downgraded shares of Lilly from Overweight to Equal-weight and maintained a $148 price target.

The Lilly Thesis

Lilly’s stock, having closed Wednesday’s session at $146.22, has approached Morgan Stanley’s price target, Risinger said in a Thursday downgrade note. (See his track record here.)
Lilly’s P/E premium to the group has increased notably and is close to historical peaks, the analyst said.
Morgan Stanley sees some risk to 2021 sales and earnings due to unemployment risks to U.S. commercial drug coverage.
Risinger said he believes Lilly has outperformed due to the following reasons:
.   A higher percentage of revenue from outpatient drugs that face less short-term,          COVID-related disruptions than hospital and physician-administered drugs.

• The company reaffirming 2020 guidance on March 23 while other pharma companies have suggested some COVID-related uncertainties.
• Less dependency on new drug launches than some peers.
• Lilly’s status as a high-quality, durable growth company with less long-term patent exposure.

Morgan Stanley estimates long-term, mid-single digit revenue and low double-digit EPS growth for Lilly.
The firm is optimistic concerning Lilly’s diabetes franchise, which stands to benefit from pipeline candidates, including high-dose Trulicity and the novel drug tirzepatide, Risinger said.
The Alzheimer’s candidates are high-risk, high-reward prospects, the analyst said.
“The stock’s high multiple reflects these prospects, in our view.”
https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/20/04/15775641/morgan-stanley-downgrades-lilly-on-valuation-says-growth-pipeline-potential-balance

Data on arthritis med for coronavirus could come within weeks: Regeneron

Initial data from clinical trials testing whether patients with severe coronavirus illness can be helped by a rheumatoid arthritis drug sold by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi SA may come as early as next week, Regeneron’s chief scientific officer told Reuters.

“We could be one to two weeks – at most a month or so – away from knowing whether this is really making a difference or not,” George Yancopoulos said of the drug Kevzara in a video interview on Wednesday ahead of a Reuters Events pharmaceutical conference next week.
The U.S. biotech company is also working to develop a drug made from antibodies from humans and mice that could be used for treatment or prevention of COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. That could be in clinical trials by June, said Yancopoulos, who co-founded Regeneron with Chief Executive Len Schleifer.
Kevzara belongs to a class of drugs known as interleukin-6 inhibitors that could help regulate an overreaction to the virus by the body’s immune system called a cytokine storm, which may be triggering the respiratory distress seen in severe COVID-19 cases.
Because of that, the drug is being tested on severe cases of the disease, which has killed some 90,000 people and wreaked havoc on economies around the world.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration encouraged Regeneron and Sanofi to combine planned mid- and late-stage clinical trials of Kevzara into a single study to speed the process, Yancopoulos said.
The companies should know if they are a seeing a strong signal on whether the drug works after a few weeks of enrolling patients, he said. The U.S. Kevzara trial started on March 16.
If the drug proves effective, supply should not be an issue, Yancopoulos said, noting that as many as a million doses have already been produced with the capacity to manufacture a lot more.
“This is treating the small percentage of people who end up being hospitalized and going on ventilators and so forth,” he said. “So there would be reasonable amounts of drug available.”

BRIDGE TO VACCINE

Meanwhile, Regeneron recently isolated hundreds of virus-neutralizing antibodies from genetically-modified mice and from humans who have recovered from COVID-19 and is working to select the best two candidates for a therapy that might treat and even prevent the disease.
The company used a similar approach to develop a treatment for Ebola. That drug has not yet been fully evaluated by health regulators, but was shown in clinical trials to cut mortality nearly by half.
“It’s a bridge, ultimately, to the vaccine… something that we can do in the short term,” Yancopoulos said. “We can maybe do it actually more powerfully than a vaccine can do it, though for a smaller targeted population than a vaccine can reach.”
He said Regeneron is working with the FDA to repurpose its upstate New York manufacturing facility to become totally dedicated to producing drugs for the pandemic. It could make “hundreds of thousands, if not on the order of a million doses a month” of the antibody cocktail there.

Other companies have approached Regeneron about helping produce massive quantities of the antibody therapy should it prove effective in preventing COVID-19, Yancopoulos said.
“If these things work, let’s make sure we can put as much manufacturing capacity as we can on it right now,” he said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-regeneron-pharms/data-on-arthritis-drug-to-treat-coronavirus-could-come-within-weeks-regeneron-executive-idUSKCN21R2WN

As fever checks become norm in Covid-19 era, thermal camera demand soars

Many businesses around the globe have halted or reduced operations to help combat the spread of the novel coronavirus which causes the sometimes fatal COVID-19 respiratory illness.
Major employers such as Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N) and Intel Corp (INTC.O) are experimenting with thermal cameras to ensure workers do not enter factories with potential illness, a critical part of maintaining production during the pandemic that could become more widespread as economies reopen. Thermal camera companies such as U.S.-based FLIR Systems Inc (FLIR.O), UK-based Thermoteknix Systems Ltd and Israel’s Opgal Optronic Industries Ltd say the surge in interest has caused a sales spike – with some tripling quarterly revenue or selling as many units in a few weeks as they had in more than five years.
The most common method for checking employee temperatures, used by Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), Walmart (WMT.N) and others, uses a handheld thermometer. But that limits how fast workers can enter a building and requires operators to stand inside the 6-foot (1.8 m) boundary recommended for social distancing.
Thermal cameras, which measure the amount of energy an object emits relative to its surroundings, represent a potentially safer non-contact alternative. The cameras scan people as they enter through doorways or hallways and send alerts to pull aside an employee for a check with a thermometer.
Intel Corp told Reuters it is evaluating thermal camera systems from several makers for use at a computer chip plant in Israel, where it is already checking employee temperatures. In the United States, meat supplier Tyson Foods said this week it has installed camera systems at three plants and is working with Thermoteknix and other vendors to expand their use to more factories. On Monday, Tyson shut a hog slaughterhouse in Columbus Junction, Iowa, for the week after more than 24 cases of COVID-19 emerged involving employees at the facility.

BACK TO WORK, BUT SAFELY

Thermal camera technology came into widespread use in airports in Asia after the SARS epidemic in 2003. Fever-detection requirements around the world have renewed interest in the technology, with systems that include the cameras, displays and other needed hardware costing about $5,000 to $10,000.
Richard Salisbury, a medical doctor who founded Thermoteknix more than 30 years ago, said first-quarter sales were three times higher than a normal year.
“Our goal is to get people back to work, but to get them back to work safely and to keep our infrastructure and our food supply running in this unprecedented situation,” Salisbury said in an interview.

FLIR is seeing an “exponential increase in demand,” said Frank Pennisi, president of the firm’s industrial business unit, all while dealing with suppliers that have been disrupted by lockdown orders in Malaysia and elsewhere.
“We’re having to prioritize hospitals and medical facilities and places that are trying to stop the spread of the disease,” Pennisi said.
In Israel, Opgal modified a thermal camera used for industrial maintenance work to check for fevers. Eran Bluestein, director of business development at Opgal, said the company has sold 1,000 of the cameras in the past two months – more units than it had sold of the previous maintenance camera since its introduction in 2013.

NOT FOOLPROOF

But the camera makers caution that their devices are a first screening step rather than a foolproof fever-detection system.
Thermal cameras do not measure absolute temperature but rather the difference in energy emitted between one object and another. The systems require regular re-calibration, for example, to handle a factory shift that begins on a cold morning when workers are filing in from outdoors versus an afternoon shift when the sun has warmed the surroundings.

Fever alarms still need verification with a medical-grade thermometer. Moreover, U.S. health officials have said people can spread coronavirus without showing symptoms such as a fever, a condition that can sometimes be reduced with over-the-counter drugs.
As coronavirus has spread around the globe, some thermal camera startups have emerged that claim to scan crowds of people over a wide area for fevers. Officials at FLIR, Thermoteknix and Opgal, each of which have sold thermal systems for decades to military and industrial customers, said such an approach is unlikely to meet international accuracy standards for fever detection.
“You’re still only going to be able to pass a couple of people at once,” Opgal’s Bluestein said. “But that’s enough for most places of business that want this for entrances or hallways.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-thermal-cameras-fo/as-fever-checks-become-the-norm-in-coronavirus-era-demand-for-thermal-cameras-soars-idUSKCN21R2SF