Sorting out COVID-19 consortia

Several consortia have brought together biopharmas, government agencies, non-profits, academics and VCs to accelerate the development of COVID-19 countermeasures. These groups have both distinct and overlapping objectives that collectively span preclinical research to distribution of marketed products. Whether their areas of overlap create redundancies remains to be seen.

Among the largest are COVID R&D, which comprises at least R&D leaders of 15 biopharma companies, two VCs and Keith Gottesdiener, former CEO of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:RYTM); Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV), organized by NIH and FNIH; and the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) (see “Collaborating to Clobber COVID-19”). ...