'Un­heard-of speed­s': Trump, new­ly warmed up to bio­phar­ma, prais­es in­dus­try's coro­n­avirus re­sponse at White House meet­ing

Speed is of the essence when it comes to de­vel­op­ing vac­cines and ther­a­peu­tics for the new coro­n­avirus. Es­pe­cial­ly if you are brief­ing Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump.

“What’s your tim­ing here?” was Trump’s go-to ques­tion af­ter he lis­tened to each of the 10 bio­phar­ma ex­ec­u­tives who con­vened in the White House Mon­day af­ter­noon with the coro­n­avirus task force led by VP Mike Pence.

The usu­al sus­pects were present: Stéphane Ban­cel of Mod­er­na, which has shipped off its mR­NA vac­cine for a Phase I study at the NIH; Len Schleifer of Re­gen­eron, in the hunt for an­ti­bod­ies; Gilead’s Daniel O’Day, there to dis­cuss the two Phase III tri­als his com­pa­ny has start­ed for a close­ly watched an­tivi­ral; and Glax­o­SmithK­line CEO Em­ma Walm­s­ley, to­geth­er with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of J&J and Sanofi, rep­re­sent­ing the tra­di­tion­al vac­cine mak­ers.

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