War breeds conspiracy, and in the biopharmaceutical world, far from public view, a broad conspiracy has formed. Tired of waiting for the vacuum of national scientific leadership to be filled and impatient with the glacial pace of federal research labs, nearly all the major players in drug discovery and development have taken matters into their own hands. The goal of their insider-only collaboration—called “Covid R&D”—is to accelerate creation of a vaccine or cure. Over the past four weeks I have spoken with or participated...

Source: Wall Street Journal May 06, 2020 17:03 UTC