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As fears of a global pandemic mounted on Monday morning, GlaxoSmithKline announced a collaboration with a Chinese biotech firm on a vaccine for COVID-19, highlighting what appears to be an increased effort by large pharmaceutical and biotech companies to find treatments for the coronavirus.

In a statement Monday morning, GlaxoSmithKline (ticker: GSK) said that it would work with Clover Biopharmaceuticals, a China-based biotech, which on Feb. 10 said it had developed a COVID-19 vaccine candidate. GlaxoSmithKline, which had said it would allow a novel technology it has developed for vaccine production to be used by select companies working on a COVID-19 vaccine, said it would share that technology with Clover.

“We are proud to contribute to cutting edge research from scientists at Clover Biopharmaceuticals in China as part of our strategy to make our adjuvant technology available to selected partners,” the chief medical officer of GSK Vaccines, Thomas Breuer, said in a statement.

The news came as stocks tumbled on fears that COVID-19 infections are picking up steam outside of China. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 2.6% on Monday morning, and S&P 500 futures were down 2.4%. And while big pharma names were down, biotech firms working on COVID-19 drugs gained ground.

Barron’s reported in late January that the largest vaccine makers were not yet working on COVID-19 programs. Yet as the epidemic has progressed, that seems to be changing. On Feb. 18, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that one of its agencies will be working with Sanofi (ticker: SNY), which like GlaxoSmithKline is among the world’s largest vaccine makers, to develop a COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Johnson & Johnson (ticker: JNJ), the world’s largest drugmaker, is also now working on COVID-19 drugs with the same government agency, called the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or Barda. Johnson & Johnson said in late January that it was beginning work on a COVID-19 vaccine on its own. In a series of announcements in mid-February, Johnson & Johnson said it would work with Barda on identifying an antiviral treatment for COVID-19, and would collaborate with the agency on its COVID-19 vaccine.

A Johnson & Johnson spokesperson said Monday that the company had no further updates on its COVID-19 programs.

The large biotech firm Gilead (GILD) is testing an antiviral drug called remdesivir as a treatment for COVID-19. Trials are currently under way in China to test the drug, though The Wall Street Journal reported on Feb. 18 that the company has had trouble recruiting patients.

A Gilead spokesperson did not immediately respond to a query Monday about whether the company had any updates on remdesivir. Shares of Gilead were up 4.6% in premarket trading.

Another early mover on a COVID-19 vaccine was the biotech firm Moderna (MRNA). Moderna, which is collaborating with the National Institutes of Health on its program, received a stock boost early this month when an NIH official told reporters that there had been “no glitches so far” in the development of the vaccine, and that he expected the drug to be undergoing human tests within two and a half months. The company said Feb. 10 that the first clinical batch of the experimental vaccine had been completed on Feb. 7. On Monday morning, a Moderna spokesperson said the company had no further updates.

Shares of Moderna were up 2.9% on Monday.

Smaller biotechs that gained significant early interest in their COVID-19 programs have been relatively quiet in recent weeks. Still, those stocks jumped on Monday.

Shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO), which received a grant from an intergovernmental group called the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, were up 10%. Shares of Novavax (NVAX), which is also working on a COVID-19 vaccine, were up 10.5%. Neither company immediately responded to queries about updates on the COVID-19 programs.

Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at josh.nathan-kazis@barrons.com