As Covid-19 R&D goes in­to over­drive, nuts-and-bolts bio­phar­ma re­search is hit­ting the skids. How bad is it?

Typ­i­cal­ly, word that the mi­cro­cap Swiss biotech Ad­dex had de­layed a key clin­i­cal tri­al wouldn’t gar­ner much at­ten­tion.

To­day, though, it’s an­oth­er ear­ly sign that clin­i­cal tri­al work — the ba­sic nuts-and-bolts ef­forts need­ed to keep a biotech on track — has be­gun to de­rail on a glob­al scale. And Ad­dex’s rea­sons for the de­lay leave lit­tle doubt that un­less you’re work­ing on Covid-19, the bio­phar­ma world is ex­pe­ri­enc­ing a pun­ish­ing slow­down — if not col­lapse — of ba­sic tri­al ac­tiv­i­ties.

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