Stocks Tumble, Gilead Crashes After FT Reports Gilead’s Remdesivir “Flops” In First Clinical Trial

Just as we suspected, the sketchy Statnews report claiming that Gilead’s remdesivir had achieved miraculous results on patients in a small preliminary University of Chicago study has been exposed as complete BS.

The FT just reported that Gilead’s “miracle drug” remdesivir has flopped in during its first clinical trial

FT SCOOP: Gilead’s potential coronavirus candidate remdesivir has flopped in its first randomised clinical trial, according to draft documents published accidentally by the World Health Organisation and seen by the Financial Times. With @hannahkuchler https://t.co/oGVnfZJox6

— Donato Paolo Mancini (@donatopmancini) April 23, 2020

Stocks are sliding on news that the “miracle drug” is anything but…

….and Gilead shares – which soared nearly 20% on the original Statnews report – are taking it especially hard.

As @RANsquawk pointed out, the fact that the market puked so hard on this report after a few days of relatively boring action is extremely telling…

Reaction to the $GILD news is also quite telling in terms of market focus. Boring trade for days, then it is suggested that a treatment has flopped and the market pukes.

Three key catalysts for equities:
1) Vaccine/treatment/testing
2) When economies reopen
3) Shape of recovery

— RANsquawk (@RANsquawk) April 23, 2020

Of course, none of this should be a surprise to all the traders who actually read Gilead’s rebuttal of the Statnews report. Because when a drug company pours cold water on a report that one of the company’s own drugs might be a “miracle cure” for the worst pandemic in a century, you should know it’s serious.

Some even speculated that the original Statnews report could have been a setup by a handful of hedge fund managers hoping to profit off their Gilead positions.

The FT managed to get the “scoop” when the WHO accidentally published draft documents pertaining to the study.

Now will the mainstream media reporters who slammed Trump following reports that a VA study of hydroxychloroquine suggested it was ineffective?

Someday when the story of this scam is written, I hope it is clear who should be ashamed of themselves for slagging anyone calling for caution: Anti-malarial drug Trump touted is linked to higher rates of death in VA coronavirus patients, study says https://t.co/EKJoGtaRXm

— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) April 22, 2020