Chinese Biotech Company Censured for Claiming It Could Make Experimental Coronavirus Drug

A Chinese biotech company which claimed to be able to manufacture an experimental drug from Gilead Sciences with the potential to treat the novel coronavirus, was censured for disclosing inaccurate information. The Shanghai Stock Exchange said in an statement Sunday that BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology has not gained approval from China’s drug regulator to make the drug known as remdesivir, which is seen as the leading candidate in the race to find a treatment for the virus that’s now sickened over 88,000 and killed over 3,000. BrightGene also has not been licensed by the patent owner — Gilead — to make the drug, nor has it obtained “the relevant qualifications” for mass production of the therapy, said the stock exchange. Shares fell by the daily limit of 20% intraday on Monday. Gilead’s experimental drug, which has not been licensed or approved for use anywhere in the world, is being tested in clinical trials at hospitals in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, as well as in other Asian nations. BrightGene’s announcement on Feb. 12 that it had managed to manufacture remdesivir in mass quantities garnered global headlines and sent its stock up nearly 60% last month to touch a record high. The stock exchange’s reprimand comes as concerns grow that researchers and drugmakers in China and elsewhere are seizing on the global panic around the growing epidemic to get attention for less...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Bloomberg China COVID-19 onetime overnight Source Type: news