The lead researcher on the Oxford vaccine team, Professor Gilbert is Professor of Vaccinology in the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford. She is the Oxford Project Leader for ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, SARSCoV-2, with approval for use in many countries around the… Read More
Interim study results show the effectiveness of one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines in preventing hospitalisation of people in their 80s with multiple comorbidities. The AvonCAP study results are by researchers from the University of Bristol, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW) and North Bristol… Read More
A new survey conducted by SwedenBIO shows that Swedish life science companies are more confident about future growth than they were before COVID-19, with 80% planning for new hires and expansion. The survey shows a major upswing in the industry, following on from similar reports a year ago which demonstrated… Read More
A new UK study by Octave seeks to understand the immune response to COVID-19 vaccinations in patients with certain immunosuppressed conditions, including cancer. Funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), researchers from the Universities of Glasgow, Birmingham (sponsors), Oxford, Liverpool, Imperial College London and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will… Read More
CN Bio has received a grant from Innovate UK to develop human-relevant single and multi-organ microphysiological systems (MPS) to advance investigations into SARS-CoV-2 infection and advance 3D lung cell culture models to accelerate drug discovery. The grant will be spent developing and testing advanced cell culture models that represent different… Read More
Resilience in pharma and biotech supply chains is essential for the roll out of the Covid-19 vaccine, says Karl Lauri, ERP/MRP software manufacturer and distributor MRPeasy.com. While the pandemic has highlighted the strength of the UK’s pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector, it has also shed light on the vulnerabilities of intricate, geographically extended and… Read More
Bio-Rad’s Bio-Plex Pro Human IgG SARS-CoV-2 N/RBD/S1/S2 4-Plex Panel is a ready-to-use, qualitative multiplex immunoassay panel which has been designed to provide quick, precise detection of IgG antibodies against four SARS-CoV-2 antigens. This “provides useful information about natural exposure rates in a population or about vaccine immunogenicity,” said Candice Cox,… Read More
The latest DDW Sitting Down With podcast features Guy Goldberg, Chief Business Officer of RedHill Biopharma. RedHill Biopharma is a biopharmaceutical company that recently announced the dosing of the first patient in its US Phase II/III study of orally-administered RHB-107 (upamostat), an investigational new drug for patients with symptomatic COVID-19… Read More
ILC Therapeutics, a biotech company based in Scotland, is developing a synthetic Interferon which has shown great promise against COVID-19 in laboratory testing and will enter clinical trials later this year. It will be, says the company, the first synthetic Interferon based on the most prominent activities of the natural… Read More
Professor Sarah Gilbert, head of the team behind the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, has told UK MPs that there is a possibility the vaccine could be taken orally and perhaps also via a nasal spray. Reported in The Guardian newspaper today, she was asked by MP Graham Stringer how the… Read More
The study is the first to describe across an entire country the effect of the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs in the community on preventing severe illness resulting in hospitalisation. Previous results about vaccine efficacy have come from clinical trials. Hospitalisation drop By the fourth week after receiving the initial dose,… Read More
Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have begun a new Phase II study with 720 volunteers aged 18 and over to select the most appropriate antigen dosage for Phase III evaluation of their adjuvanted recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine candidate. “Over the past few weeks, our teams have worked to refine the antigen… Read More
RedHill Biopharma, a specialty biopharmaceutical company, has announced that the first patient was dosed in its US Phase II/III study of orally-administered RHB-107 (upamostat)[i], an investigational new drug for patients with symptomatic COVID-19 who do not require hospital care. Dror Ben-Asher, RedHill’s CEO said: “RedHill is rapidly advancing two Phase… Read More
The UK will be the first country in the world to run a COVID-19 human challenge study, following approval from the UK’s clinical trials ethics body. Backed by a £33.6 million UK government investment, the first-of-its-kind study for this virus will involve establishing the smallest amount of virus needed to… Read More
BioIVT, provider of research models and services for drug and diagnostic development, has introduced its COVID-19 Vaccination Panel, composed of pre- and post-vaccination serum or PBMC samples, to enable researchers to study blood donors’ vaccine-generated immune response. BioIVT has been providing more than 300 clients with biospecimens to support the… Read More
Evonik is investing in the short-term expansion of its specialty lipids production which are essential for mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines. Commercial lipid quantities are to be produced at Evonik’s Hanau and Dossenheim sites in Germany as early as the second half of 2021 as part of a strategic partnership with vaccine… Read More
