Wall Street is cheering the news that a viable coronavirus treatment could be on the horizon after a pair of studies showed a drug from Gilead Sciences worked in patients. "Put down the bleach, remdesivir is coming," JPMorgan's biotech analyst Cory Kasimov said in a note to clients on Wednesday. The analyst's comment is a tongue-in-cheek reference to President Donald Trump's words last week about injecting disinfectants into the body. The president later said he was being sarcastic. "This is critical because this study is placebo controlled and should help put the impact of remdesivir into context," Kasimov said. "We'll have to wait for detailed results to fully understand this benefit, but we see a high likelihood of approval given the unmet need, stat sig benefit, and seemingly acceptable tolerability." JPMorgan has an overweight rating on Gilead and kept its 12-month price target of $85 set in July 2019. Shares of Gilead jumped more than 6% to about $83 a piece on Wednesday. The stock market swung higher as hopes for an effective therapy increased. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped more than 500 points on Wednesday, bringing its month-to-date gains to more than 12%. Stocks have been extremely sensitive to any development on a pharma solution to the pandemic. A study from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Wednesday released upbeat commentary about Gilead's drug remdesivir. Separately, the company said another study of remdesivir led to symptom improvement in patients with severe cases of the coronavirus. Gilead said the study of 200 patients showed that symptom remedy can be achieved in some with a five-day regimen. "These study results complement data from the placebo-controlled study of remdesivir conducted by the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and help to determine the optimal duration of treatment with remdesivir," Merdad Parsey, Gilead's chief medical officer, said in a statement. "The study demonstrates the potential for some patients to be treated with a 5-day regimen, which could significantly expand the number of patients who could be treated with our current supply of remdesivir." —CNBC's MIchael Bloom contributed reporting. Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis, and live business day programming from around the world.
