Hi everyone -- here's what you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak today. If you have any news tips, get in touch. - Globally cases have topped 96,000, with more than 3,300 deaths.
- New York City reported two more cases, and a first patient was confirmed in New Jersey. Track all the developments here.
- The stock market is tumbling again. A virus scare roiled a big bank.
The pharmaceutical industry says it's up to the task of getting treatments and vaccine for coronavirus to market quickly. At a White House meeting with President Donald Trump this week, drug executives said antiviral medicines could be available in months, with a vaccine by next year. "Get it done," Trump said. "We need it." But the history isn't encouraging, Michelle Cortez writes. Over the past two decades, two other coronaviruses have leapt from animals to humans, an Ebola outbreak killed more than half those it infected, and Zika infections harmed babies before they were born. Pharmaceutical companies spent billions trying to fight the pathogens but were left with little to show for it. There's no guarantee coronavirus will be different, but science is moving fast. Researchers in China quickly provided the disease's genetic sequence, giving others a faster start in the hunt for treatments and vaccines. More than 200 clinical trials in China are testing everything from HIV and flu drugs to antibody-containing plasma from recovered patients. Alongside the puzzle in the laboratory exists another problem: Translating the effort into treatments that can quell the outbreak and yield a return on the companies' investments. Stocks of drugmakers and biotechnology companies have racked up big gains on the hope that the industry will see a windfall from treating Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Moderna, maker of the lead vaccine candidate and one of the most notable winners in that rally, has surged 50% in a few weeks. Gilead Sciences has seen its market value swell by $17 billion since the outbreak began on hopes its experimental antiviral drug will be a viable treatment. Those bets are being placed despite caution flags from history. Read more about how long the odds are, and the lessons from past failures, here. Here's what else we're watching:Sandoz settles up. Novartis's giant generics division agreed to pay $195 million to settle U.S. criminal charges that the company had conspired with other pharmaceutical companies to fix prices. It's the latest and most significant settlement pact thus far in a long-running—and once-stalled—Justice Department investigation. Read more about it here. An abortion battle. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in a case pro-choice advocates say could severely curb abortion access in America. At issue: a Louisiana law requiring hospital admitting privileges for doctors who perform abortions. Known by abortion rights advocates as TRAP laws, state legislatures are piling on regulations like these to make it harder for abortion doctors to operate by adding enormous costs.
The Biden bounce. Count one group very happy with how Super Tuesday turned out: investors in health-insurance stocks. The big win for Joe Biden relieved traders worried about Bernie Sanders's Medicare-for-All plans. Listen up. On the latest season on the Prognosis podcast, we tell how the $4 trillion American health-care system became so expensive and inefficient, and what some people are trying to do about it. Download it here on Apple devices, and here on Android.  Got this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up to get it every Thursday by clicking here.
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