Wall Street shares are on track for a higher opening on Friday after a report suggested a coronavirus drug developed by Gilead Sciences had shown positive results in a clinical trial, giving investors hope that a treatment could ease the pandemic and open up the global economy.
Early impressions from a study at the University of Chicago Medicine were reported by Stat news, a healthcare industry publication, showing rapid recoveries in almost all of the more than a hundred severely ill patients.
Shares in Gilead, which have risen 17 per cent already this year, jumped a further 14 per cent in after-hours trading.
This helped spur a 3 per cent gain in futures contracts linked to the S&P 500 index on Friday and underpinned a rally in Asian shares despite a historic contraction in China’s economy.
The Europe-wide Stoxx 600 index gained 2.5 per cent and London’s FTSE was up 2.4 per cent.
In a video presentation to her academic colleagues, a copy of which was obtained by Stat, Kathleen Mullane, an infectious disease specialist who is leading the trials at the university hospital, said: “The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We’ve only had two patients perish.”