· Gilead Sciences Inc. shares were whipsawed for the second time in a week after a summary of a Chinese trial of its COVID-19 drug appeared to show that it was a failure.
The synopsis, which the company and a scientist working on the trial said didn’t fairly represent the actual results, sent Gilead’s shares down as much as 8.5 per cent Thursday. The broader market appeared to fall as well, with the S&P 500 briefly giving up all of its gains for the day, before rebounding.
Gilead’s drug, remdesivir, is one of the most closely-watched therapies of the dozens being developed and tested as a potential treatment for COVID-19 patients. The World Health Organization, which has been helping coordinate the global response to the virus, said it accidentally posted the results on a website that helps track therapies for the disease.
The summary was quickly removed, but details of the post were reported by the Financial Times and posted by the publication Stat. They showed that the drug wasn’t associated with patients getting better more quickly; and 13.9 per cent of patients getting the drug died, versus 12.8 per cent getting standard care.
· Asian shares and U.S. stock futures fell on Friday, spurred by doubts about progress in the development of drugs to treat COVID-19 and new evidence of U.S. economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4%. U.S. stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, were down 0.56%.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq turned negative at the close on Thursday after a report that Gilead Sciences Inc’s antiviral drug remdesivir had failed to help severely ill COVID-19 patients in its first clinical trial.
Gilead said the findings were inconclusive because the study conducted in China was terminated early.
· Japanese shares ended lower on Friday, marking their first weekly decline in three, as investors are still in the dark over when and how quickly the economy can recover from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Nikkei share average closed 0.86% lower at 19,262.00, with a weekly loss of 3.2%.
The broader Topix lost 0.33% to 1,421.29
· Chinese shares fell on Friday and ended the week lower amid lingering coronavirus worries, but losses were limited as Beijing pledged more support to shore up the world’s second- largest economy.
The blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.9% to 3,796.97, while the Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1.1% to 2,808.53.
China’s central bank cut the interest rate on its targeted medium-term lending facility (TMLF) on Friday, following similar reductions to borrowing costs on other liquidity tools in the past few weeks to support the economy.
· European stocks were lower on Friday as traders monitored fresh economic data and digested a report that raised doubts over a possible coronavirus treatment.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down more than 1% during early deals, with all sectors and major bourses in negative territory. The banking sector, down more than 2%, led losses.
Reference: CNBC, Reuters, BNN Bloomberg
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