Despite the encouraging news of potentially successful COVID-19 vaccine trials, there is not yet an FDA-approved vaccine available. Research into other effective coronavirus vaccines continues, including at UC Davis Health. The health system is expected to launch a stage III clinical trial with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and… Read More
Rutgers Research Professor, Daniel Hausman, examines the ethical questions around human challenge trials for COVID-19 vaccines The first human challenge trial to test COVID-19 treatments and vaccines is set to begin in January in the United Kingdom. These trials, in which healthy volunteers are infected with the virus after being… Read More
University of Oxford and AstraZeneca researchers have released a pooled analysis of Phase III trials of a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 across two different dose regimens, resulting in an average efficacy of 70.4%. The new study published in the Lancet is the first peer-reviewed publication of Phase III data from studies of… Read More
Using the same strain of yeast that ferments wine and makes dough rise, a team led by University of California, Irvine and Harvard Medical School researchers has developed an in vitro technology that can rapidly hypermutate antibodies. The new technology generates antibodies faster than animal immune systems and better than… Read More
Seppic’s Sepivac SWETM vaccine adjuvant for human use can contribute to the development of vaccine solutions to fight seasonal and pandemic influenza, as well as COVID-19. Together with various international partners, Seppic is participating in the global research effort to develop a vaccine solution against COVID-19. These programs are in… Read More
In a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Moderna has reported that participants in the Phase I study its mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine candidate, retained high levels of neutralising antibodies for 119 days following first vaccination (90 days following second vaccination). The study was led by the National Institute… Read More
In a collaboration involving the National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratories (NEIDL), the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM), and the Center for Network Systems Biology (CNSB), scientists have reported the first map of the molecular responses of human lung cells to infection by SARS-CoV-2. By combining bioengineered human alveolar cells with… Read More
This week has provided hope and optimism that the end of the pandemic is finally in sight, with the UK becoming the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for widespread use. With almost half of Britain now in Tier 3 and many small businesses facing… Read More
The COVID Moonshot is a global consortium that aims to rapidly develop antivirals for COVID-19. Dr. Lizbe Koekemoer of Oxford University describes how the project team leverages the CDD Vault informatics platform to effectively store, manage, and share data among multiple international partners. … Read More
The Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has been authorised for emergency use by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA). Pfizer and BioNTech recently announced final efficacy analysis in their Phase III study for their mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate BNT162b2, which showed an efficacy rate of 95% in participants without prior… Read More
New research led by Robert Gerszten, Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) sheds new light on the genetic risk factors that make individuals more or less susceptible to severe COVID-19. The findings, published in a letter in the New England Journal of… Read More
Moderna has announced that the primary efficacy analysis of the Phase III study of mRNA-1273 conducted on 196 cases confirms the high efficacy observed at the first interim analysis. The data analysis indicates a vaccine efficacy of 94.1%. The company has also reported no cases of severe disease among those… Read More
Novavax a late-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, has released an update on its COVID-19 vaccine. NVX‑CoV2373 is a stable, prefusion protein antigen derived from the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus spike (S) protein and adjuvanted with the company’s proprietary Matrix‑M. “Novavax is in a… Read More
None of the mutations currently documented in the SARS-CoV-2 virus appear to increase its transmissibility in humans, according to a study led by UCL researchers. The analysis of virus genomes from over 46,000 people with COVID-19 from 99 countries is published in Nature Communications. First and corresponding author Dr Lucy… Read More
Moderna will supply the UK government with an additional 2 million doses of mRNA-1273, Moderna’s vaccine candidate against COVID-19, beginning in March 2021. The UK government has now secured 7 million doses of mRNA-1273. “We appreciate the collaboration with the UK government as with many other governments and other key… Read More
From March to April 2020, more than 50% of immunisation programmes around the world have reported significant disruptions to their vaccination services. Developed and delivered by The Geneva Learning Foundation, and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the COVID-19 Peer Hub programme is connecting more than 4000 immunisation… Read More
