Decisions faced in directors' boardrooms: To profit from the pandemic, or not?

The NPC Podcast is on the air. The organizers of the National Pharmaceutical Congress are proud to release our new weekly podcast series, hosted by Peter Brenders. Peter's guest this week is Pamela Fralick, president of Innovative Medicines Canada. Listen here now, or download the episode and play it at your convenience. The NPC Podcast is presented in cooperation with Impres Pharma. (The NPC Podcast is now on Apple iTunes.)

⇒ Issue #81 (In numerology, 81 connotes humanitarianism, business, and self-sufficiency.)

⇒ Confirmed Covid cases in Canada as of 07/23: 113,790*
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 07/23: 8,913*
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 07/23: 15,250,804*
⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 07/23: 623,879*

Thursday, July 23, 2020 — Good morning to you from Chronicle reporter Cory Perla. Two therapeutics companies, Moderna and Merck, said that they intend to turn a profit on Covid-19 vaccine candidates, while companies such as Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca have declared they'll provide their vaccine on a cost-recovery basis during the pandemic.

Pfizer has also indicated that it plans to make money from its vaccine, but the company's John Young hedged the decision by saying that they understand that these are “extraordinary times” and that the price will reflect the crisis. The U.S. federal government has just signed a contract with Pfizer for 100 million doses of their vaccine, which could be delivered by December, according to the Washington-based political publication, The Hill.

Similarly, Novartis has pledged it will not profit from generic drugs that are being used in developing countries to treat symptoms of Covid-19. In contrast, Novavax has structured payments for its top executives so that even if their vaccine fails, the corner offices could still earn tens of millions of dollars, according to Reuters news agency.

CanSino Biologics, a Chinese vaccine company evidently connected to the Chinese military, is now indicating that they have produced a safe vaccine, which is in its mid-stage study. In what may or may not be a related story, U.S. officials are now claiming that China may be trying to steal vaccine secrets from several unnamed American biotech companies, according to the New York Times. Two suspects, described as Chinese-government-endorsed spies, were named by the  U.S. Justice Department, but appear unlikely to be extradited, according to aTimes report.

COVID CHRONICLE 07/23/20

• The number of coronavirus infections in the U.S. may be between six and 25 times as high as currently estimated, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control. The study, published online in JAMA Internal Medicine (July 21, 2020), looked at serum samples from 16,025 people from 10 different regions. Researchers found that unreported cases of infection may exist in huge quantities based on antibodies evidence observed in the blood samples.

• Washing hands, wearing masks, and social distancing actually work, according to a new study. Not only do they work, but these three measures specifically, in combination, are the key to avoiding infection, say the authors of the study, which was published online in PLoS Medicine (July 21, 2020). Researchers came to these conclusions by creating a deterministic compartmental transmission model of Covid-19. They concluded that campaigns to encourage these behaviours can be effective in fighting the epidemic.

• A new study has shed light on how Covid-19 affects the heart. Pathologists conducting autopsies on 22 patients found an unexpected scattering of cell death in the heart muscles. “We identified key gross and microscopic changes that challenge the notion that typical myocarditis is present in severe SARS-CoV-2 infection,” said Dr. Richard Vander Heide, Professor and Director of Pathology Research at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine in a press release. Authors of the study, which was published in Circulation (July 2020), said they still do not understand the mechanism by which Covid-19 damages the heart, but believe this study brings them one step closer to answers.

STORIES CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY

A video report on a study that looked at the lack of images of skin of colour in studies of Covid-19 related skin manifestations.

RIGHT NOW WE ARE LISTENING TO. . .

What Kinda Music by Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes. Groovy, poetic, and far out, are a few words I would use to describe this album. For fans of Thundercat, Flying Lotus, and Tame Impala. 

LATER WE'RE READING....

Bread Without Sugar by Gerald Stern. A friend of mine gave me this book of poetry and it’s inspiring: inspiring because it makes me feel as if, sink me and dash-it-all, I too could scribble poems. The author’s straightforward descriptions and almost narrative-like structures describe a range of emotions that we all recognize in our everyday lives.

TONIGHT WE'RE COOKING....

Hot dogs, hamburgers (and Beyond Burgers) on the grill. You know: the good stuff at mid-summer.

DROP US A LINE

Use the comments section at the Daily CurveFlattener to let us know what you're up to today. Or feel free to check in via LinkedIn, email, or your choice of connector. By all means, pass this newsletter along to your colleagues.

That's it for now. Stay in touch, stay safe and make this a tolerable Thursday. My colleague Dhiren Mahiban will report tomorrow.