Medicago, a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Quebec City, and GSK are starting Phase II/III clinical trials of its plant-derived vaccine candidate for COVID-19 to evaluate its efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity. Based on the positive Phase I results, Medicago has decided to launch the Phase II/III clinical trial with GSK’s pandemic… Read More
CureVac says its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, CVnCoV, remains stable and within defined specifications for at least three months when stored at a standard refrigerator temperature of +5°C (+41°F) and up to 24 hours as ready-to-use vaccine when stored at room temperature. “Transport and storage of vaccines requiring ultra-low temperature… Read More
The PneumoLight campaign, in collaboration with Pfizer – and coinciding with World Pneumonia Day – will see 232 buildings and monuments from 48 different countries will be illuminated in blue. The project involves Dr. Catia Cilloniz, a researcher at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, the University of Barcelona (UB), the Barcelona… Read More
FinnCap’s latest Rude Health Life Sciences Sector Report focuses on the implications of early COVID-19 vaccine data. This comes as Pfizer and BioNTech have announced their COVID-19 vaccine candidate has so far been found to be 90% effective in preventing COVID-19. Mark Brewer, Director of Research for finnCap, commented: "While the… Read More
High doses of vitamin C under study for treating COVID-19 may benefit some populations, but investigators exploring its potential in ageing say key factors in effectiveness include levels of the natural transporter needed to get the vitamin inside cells. Age, race, gender, as well as expression levels and genetic variations… Read More
Croda, the speciality chemical company has entered into an agreement with Pfizer to supply novel excipients used in the manufacture of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The contract runs for five years and awards Croda an initial supply contract for four component excipients used in the production of the vaccine candidate… Read More
Richard Torbett, Chief Executive, ABPI says vaccines are one of our best hopes for eradicating COVID-19 and why the ABPI is launching a campaign to highlight this. “COVID-19 has put shone a spotlight on the pharmaceutical industry like never before. Millions of people all over the world are living under… Read More
The National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology (Gamaleya Center) and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) have announced that the Sputnik V vaccine demonstrated high efficacy of 92%. The human adenoviral vectors vaccine against coronavirus was registered on the 11 August under the emergency use authorisation mechanism. The confirmation… Read More
The first effective coronavirus vaccine can prevent more than 90% of people from getting Covid-19, a preliminary analysis has shown. The developers – Pfizer and BioNTech – described it as a “great day for science and humanity”. The analysis evaluated 94 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in trial participants. Daniel Davis,… Read More
Pfizer and BioNTech have announced their mRNA-based vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, against SARS-CoV-2 has demonstrated evidence of efficacy against COVID-19 in participants without prior evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, based on the first interim efficacy analysis conducted on November 8, 2020 by an external, independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) from the Phase… Read More
Mammoth Biosciences has signed agreements with MilliporeSigma and Hamilton Company targeting commercialisation of a high-throughput CRISPR-based SARS CoV-2 test. The test leverages Mammoth’s DETECTR BOOST platform and will provide a sample-to-answer turnkey solution for commercial laboratories to enable an increase in testing capacity. As laboratories face limited capacity and testing… Read More
Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers analysed patients’ levels of inflammation, known to be associated with severity of illness, by looking at C-reactive protein (CRP) trends in 100 COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital. They found that a rapid rise in CRP levels during the first 48-to-72 hours of hospitalisation was… Read More
By Andrew Myers Throughout the pandemic, infectious disease experts and frontline medical workers have asked for a faster, cheaper and more reliable COVID-19 test. Now, leveraging the so-called “lab on a chip” technology and the cutting-edge genetic editing technique known as CRISPR, researchers at Stanford have created a highly automated… Read More
University of South Australia cancer researcher, Dr Nirmal Robinson, working with a team in Naples, has found evidence in animal models that the beta-blocker Propranolol helps suppress the spread of cancer in the lung which has an inflammatory profile very similar to COVID-19. The scientists have presented their findings in… Read More
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists have discovered the fastest way to identify potent, neutralising human monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The method– as well as a trio of successful animal studies on an antibody called ‘Ab1’– are described today in the Proceedings of the… Read More
Analysis from virtual clinical development specialist Phesi shows the enrolment and effectiveness of two current COVID-19 vaccine trials conducted by global pharmaceutical development companies. On the surface, both trials appear to be on track to complete enrolment, however, looking deeper, there is a significant difference in the Site Effectiveness Index… Read More
