A new study from Lawson Health Research Institute, Western University and University of Alberta suggests that COVID-19 affects the human body’s blood concentration levels of specific metabolites – small molecules broken down in the human body through the process of metabolism. Three specific metabolites identified in this study could act… Read More
The UK BIA Antibody Taskforce, a UK consortium developing antibodies for treating COVID-19 has reached a major milestone – the identification of differentiated antibody combinations that will be taken forward for further development as an antibody ‘cocktail’. The Taskforce developed an accelerated and rigorous multifaceted approach to create a pool… Read More
Moderna has announced a supply agreement with the Ministry of Public Health of Qatar for mRNA-1273, Moderna’s vaccine candidate against COVID-19. “We appreciate the confidence of the Ministry of Health of Qatar in our mRNA vaccine platform and the collaboration we have had to date,” said Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s Chief… Read More
The AstraZeneca Oxford COVID-19 vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and also known as AZD1222) has been shown to work as planned. A team at Bristol University has used recently developed techniques to further validate that the vaccine accurately follows the genetic instructions programmed into it by the Oxford team. This novel analysis… Read More
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has today authorised a restart of clinical trials of the ChAdOx1 nCov-2019 Oxford coronavirus vaccine in the USA following the trials restarting in the UK, Brazil, South Africa and Japan. On 6 September, a standard review process triggered a voluntary pause to vaccination across… Read More
A research team at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), an arm of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is working with PerkinElmer’s AlphaLISA immunoassay to help support the global search for effective COVID-19 therapeutics. The NCATS research project is focused on studying small molecule drug compounds that… Read More
Aerogen has released details of a collaborative effort to support global pharmaceutical companies developing COVID-19 vaccines and therapies. To date, more than ten million patients globally have been treated safely and effectively with Aerogen’s drug delivery technology. As the global scientific community rallies against the pandemic, there has been interest… Read More
hVIVO, has signed a contract with the UK government to develop a COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) human challenge study model. The model development involves the manufacture of the challenge virus and the first-in-human characterisation study for this virus. The contract starts immediately and could be worth approximately £10 million to hVIVO –… Read More
The world’s first participants to take part in a phase III trial of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine candidate have been recruited at one of the new NIHR National Patient Recruitment Centres (NPRC) based in Blackpool, UK. US-based biotechnology firm, Novavax, launched the phase III clinical trial of a potential COVID-19… Read More
Evotec’s Seattle-based subsidiary, Just–Evotec Biologics has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator to enable the development and production of monoclonal antibody (mAb) candidates for the prevention of severe COVID-19 in vulnerable populations in low and middle income countries. Under… Read More
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has launched a study designed to determine whether certain approved therapies or investigational drugs in late-stage clinical development show promise against COVID-19 and merit advancement into larger clinical trials. The ACTIV-5 Big Effect Trial,… Read More
Robin Vacha, Senior Vice President, Products at Brooks Life Sciences and David Lewandowski, Global Business Development Manager, Cryo Division at Brooks Life Sciences examine the role of unbroken cold chain in research and development As COVID-19 vaccine research continues to grow at an unparalleled pace, so does the need for… Read More
Adrian van den Hoven, Director General, Medicines for Europe, looks at how COVID-19 has altered the way we consider EU pharmaceutical policy Adrian van den Hoven delivered the opening keynote address at the CPhI Festival of Pharma on how COVID-19 is changing the landscape of European pharmaceutical policy, primarily with… Read More
Cobra Biologics is to manufacture Scancell Holdings COVID-19 vaccine. The agreement covers Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) production of plasmid DNA needed to generate the DNA vaccine, against SARS-CoV-2, for use in a Phase I clinical trial in 2021 (COVIDITY). The project is funded by an Innovate UK grant awarded to… Read More
Avacta’s BAMS assay to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been launched as a research kit by its partner Adeptrix and the assay has been presented by Bruker Scientific, a mass spectrometer manufacturer, in a new application note. The bead-assisted mass spectrometry (BAMS) assay uses the Affimer reagents specific to the… Read More
Almost seven in 10 Americans would be interested in receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, a study finds. But researchers say there are concerning gaps in interest, particularly among Black Americans, who suffer disproportionately from the virus. Researchers from The Ohio State University surveyed more than 2,000 Americans, asking them about their… Read More
