RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The shares of California state Pharmaceutical Company Sorrento Therapeutics were up 241.6 percent during day trading at Nasdaq, on Friday’s highest point, after the company claimed to have found a cure for the coronavirus Covid-19. However, the company’s shares closed up 158 percent, at R$ 6.76 (US$1.15).
With the rush for Sorrento’s shares, the company achieved its first billion dollars in market value. As a result, the company’s market value stood at approximately US$1.37 billion. Gilead, its competitor in the dispute for the discovery of the cure, is around 70 times higher, valued at US$95.61 billion.
In a statement, Sorrento announced that it had discovered the STI-1499, an antibody that is said to shield the body against the virus, and that it was “100 percent” effective in inhibiting infection in pre-clinical trials. “Our STI-1499 antibody shows exceptional therapeutic potential and can potentially save lives after it is granted the required regulatory approvals,” said Henry Ji, the company’s CEO, and founder.
The company said this should be the first antibody in a cocktail it is developing to fight the disease. Sorrento said it has examined billions of antibodies and identified several hundred that bind to the Covid-19 protein. Among those, approximately a dozen prove effective in blocking the virus from penetrating the human cells, according to the company.
“We want to stress that there is a cure. There is a solution that works 100 percent,” Ji said in an interview with Fox News. Although the entrepreneur has been assertive, the potential treatment against the coronavirus still requires approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
According to the statement, the company expects to produce up to 200,000 doses of the STI-1499 antibody per month. In an attempt to increase production, the company said it is seeking government aid and pharmaceutical partners. Focusing on antibodies for cancer treatments, Sorrento has also been pursuing antiviral therapies and vaccines against the coronavirus, but risks being merely another small player in a battle of giants.
Source: Exame