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Sanofi and GSK finalized and signed today an Advanced purchase agreement with the European Commission (EC) for the supply of up to 300 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, once the vaccine is approved. The vaccine candidate is based on the recombinant protein-based technology used by Sanofi to produce an influenza vaccine, and GSK's established adjuvant technology.

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) and Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) today announced a global antibody manufacturing collaboration to significantly increase the supply capacity available for Lilly's potential COVID-19 therapies. Lilly is currently studying several potential neutralizing antibodies for the prevention and/or treatment of COVID-19 as either monotherapy or in combination.

Ever since SARS-CoV-2 first appeared, researchers have been trying to understand whether sometimes the immune system does more harm than good during the acute phase of COVID-19. The latest study by researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology clearly argues in favor of the immune system.

Computer-designed small proteins have now been shown to protect lab-grown human cells from SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

In the experiments, the lead antiviral candidate, named LCB1, rivaled the best-known SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies in its protective actions. LCB1 is currently being evaluated in rodents.

COVID-19 is caused by a virus known as SARS-CoV-2, which is similar in structure to two other viruses that have caused recent outbreaks: SARS-CoV, which caused an outbreak of SARS in 2003, and MERS-CoV, the cause of a 2012 outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists have isolated the smallest biological molecule to date that completely and specifically neutralizes the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is the cause of COVID-19. This antibody component, which is 10 times smaller than a full-sized antibody, has been used to construct a drug - known as Ab8 - for potential use as a therapeutic and prophylactic against SARS-CoV-2.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) announced that they have submitted an amended protocol to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expand the enrollment of their Phase 3 pivotal COVID-19 vaccine trial to up to approximately 44,000 participants which also allows for the enrollment of new populations.

Immune reactions caused by vaccination can help protect the organism, or sometimes may aggravate the condition. It is especially important now when multiple vaccines against COVID-19 are being developed. The top immunologists analyse types of immune response to predict what kind of vaccine would be the best.

Clinical trials for the AstraZeneca Oxford coronavirus vaccine, AZD1222, have resumed in the UK following confirmation by the Medicines Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA) that it was safe to do so.

On 6 September, the standard review process triggered a voluntary pause to vaccination across all global trials to allow review of safety data by independent committees, and international regulators. The UK committee has concluded its investigations and recommended to the MHRA that trials in the UK are safe to resume.

SARS-CoV-2 arrived in Washington State somewhere between late January and early February 2020, sparking rapid community transmission of the virus that went undetected for several weeks before this community spread became evident, prompting a change in testing criteria to emphasize individuals with no travel history. That's the scenario proposed by Trevor Bedford and colleagues after their analysis of the genetic sequences of 455 SARS-CoV-2 viruses from the Washington State outbreak collected between January 19 and March 15, 2020.

CureVac N.V. (Nasdaq: CVAC), a biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of transformative medicines based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) in clinical trials, has received notification from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) that CureVac is expected receive up to 252 million euros to support the development of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (NASDAQ: SVA) ("Sinovac" or the "Company"), a leading provider of biopharmaceutical products in China, announced that the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by Sinovac Life Sciences (Sinovac LS), or "CoronaVac," shows good safety and immunogenicity on healthy adults aged 60 and above from its phase I/II clinical studies conducted in China, which is comparable to the result in healthy adults aged from 18 to 59 in the earlier studies.

Using public transportation, visiting a place of worship, or otherwise traveling from the home is associated with a significantly higher likelihood of testing positive with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, while practicing strict social distancing is associated with a markedly lower likelihood, suggests a study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX) today announced preliminary preclinical data in mouse and non-human primate models from their BNT162b2 mRNA-based vaccine program against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease. In a non-human primate preclinical study, immunization with the BNT162b2, a nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (modRNA) candidate, protected rhesus macaques against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

As part of the ongoing randomised, controlled clinical trials of the AstraZeneca Oxford coronavirus vaccine, AZD1222, a standard review process has been triggered, leading to the voluntary pause of vaccination across all trials to allow an independent committee to review the safety data of a single event of an unexplained illness that occurred in the UK Phase III trial.

Early findings from researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) show that convalescent plasma appears to be a safe and possibly effective treatment for children with life-threatening cases of COVID-19. The results were published online Friday by the journal Pediatric Blood and Cancer.

The CEOs of AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/NYSE: AZN), BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX), GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, Moderna, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA), Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), and Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY), today announced a historic pledge, outlining a united commitment to uphold the integrity of the scientific process as they work towards potential global regulatory filings and approvals of the first COVID-19 vaccines.

Janssen's lead SARS-CoV-2 investigational vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2.S, prevented severe clinical disease in Syrian golden hamsters, upon challenge with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in people. The data, published in Nature Medicine, demonstrated that the Company's investigational adenovirus serotype 26 (Ad26) vector-based vaccineJanssen's lead SARS-CoV-2 investigational vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2.S, prevented severe

15 September, 2020. London, UK.
OKRA has announced a new, free webinar called 'Why Next Best Action is not enough', a panel will discuss the urgent need to move beyond the current trend of adding simplistic or 'dumb' AI tools to sales force dashboards.

These AI tools make sense for managers - they are very easy to apply, inexpensive, and give reps an enhanced view of the market - but in the medium-to-long term will likely cause more harm than good.

Results from two early-phase Russian non-randomised vaccine trials (Sputnik V) in a total of 76 people are published today in The Lancet, finding that two formulations of a two-part vaccine have a good safety profile with no serious adverse events detected over 42 days, and induce antibody responses in all participants within 21 days.