A GSK lab in London.
Oli Scarff | Getty Images
There were several major developments over the last week with the medical community marking progress in all three critical areas: testing, treatments and vaccines.
Experts have welcomed positive data on potential treatments and progress on testing, but warn that vaccine timelines look ambitious and argue more thought is needed on manufacturing.
Testing
On Sunday, Roche‘s Covid-19 antibody test received FDA Emergency Use Authorization. The test is designed to help determine if a patient has been exposed to the virus and has developed antibodies against it. Roche will provide high double-digit millions of tests from this month.
Roche CEO Severin Schwan told CNBC on April 22 that, “Unlike with molecular tests which directly measure the virus, with antibody tests, the scaling is much easier from a technical point of view plus there is an enormous base of installed instruments and platforms out there.”
Treatments
After weeks of speculation and…