The extraordinary scope and scale of the COVID-19 pandemic has elicited extraordinary responses world-wide. Companies, government agencies, academic institutions and non-profits located across the globe have mobilized teams to research the SARS-CoV-19 virus and COVID-19, conduct clinical studies of potential interventions that currently exist, and research and develop new interventions, including vaccines. To educate and inform, numerous organizations are also providing news and analysis of the pandemic. Importantly, much of this information has been made available free of charge. In Part 6 of our series “Coronavirus in the crosshairs“, we provide links to a sampling of websites that collectively offer extensive, and free, coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Global Distribution of SARS-CoV-2
Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center
This website is a resource to help advance the understanding of the virus, inform the public, and brief policymakers in order to guide a response, improve care, and save lives. The site includes a global map and a map of the United States
The New York Times
This website includes analysis of recent news and maps of viral distribution.
COVID-19 Clinical Studies
A new resource for tracking COVID-19 clinical studies has been launched by Cytel. Funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Global COVID-19 Clinical Trial Tracker is designed to identify any active interventional trials investigating treatment of COVID-19, regardless of clinical context.
Clinicaltrials.gov has one-click access to extensive information about hundreds of clinical trials associated with the key words COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 and 2019-nCoV.
Therapeutics and Vaccines in Development
The Milken Institute has launched a COVID-19 Treatment and Vaccine Tracker. Data can be downloaded as a PDF.
BioWorld is offering a list of biopharma products in development for COVID-19, including both therapeutics and vaccines.
Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society is maintaining the Regulatory Focus COVID-19 Tracker, which is a resource for information on COVID-19 vaccine development that is updated weekly.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations has published an overview of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in development. As of April 8, 2020, they had identified 78 confirmed active projects, with 73 currently at exploratory or preclinical stages, and an additional 37 programs that were considered unconfirmed due to limited data available. As the authors note, the range of technology platforms being evaluated, including nucleic acid (DNA and RNA), virus-like particle, peptide, viral vector (replicating and non-replicating), recombinant protein, live attenuated virus and inactivated virus approaches, is striking.
Scientific and Medical Literature
The New England Journal of Medicine is now providing open access to a collection of articles and other resources on the COVID-19 outbreak, including clinical reports, management guidelines, and commentary.
Science has made their coronavirus-related content open access.
Next in Coronavirus in the crosshairs
In upcoming installments of “Coronavirus in the crosshairs“, we will discuss diagnostic tests and preliminary results of clinical studies of small molecule and biologic drugs used to treat COVID-19.
