Covid-19

Dr Pirkko Muhonen, Senior Field Application Scientist, Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, at Thermo Fisher Scientific, shares what’s next for RNA-based medicine post-pandemic with DDW. With SARS-CoV-2 circulating the globe and leading to over five million deaths worldwide1, all eyes are on the critical role messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines are playing in helping to fight the ongoing […]

Listen to this article on the DDW Podcast: The Covid-19 Host Genetics Initiative carried out one of the largest genome-wide association studies ever. It involved meta-analysis of nearly 50,000 Covid-19 patients and two million uninfected controls. Dr Hamdi Mbarek, Lead Analyst of the Qatari dataset explains how the initiative improved knowledge of host-genetic determinants of Covid-19 […]

Pharmaceutical companies must keep improving Covid-19 treatments in line with new variants without sidelining work in other areas of health, according to new data from YouGov and Informa Pharma Intelligence, a provider for the biopharma industry.   The report  This data, included in Informa Pharma’s ‘Q4 2021 Clinical Trials and the Covid 19 Landscape’ report, is […]

Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) and Charles River Laboratories International are launching a new project to uncover how different cells in the human immune system respond to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.   The research  This new mouse model has been engineered to express human ACE2, the receptor that SARS-CoV-2 uses to […]

The first results of an early trial of a multivariant Covid-19 vaccine booster, launched in Manchester in September 2021, has shown it is driving a comprehensive immune response.  The results  US-based biotechnology company Gritstone bio, in collaboration with The University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, revealed the initial Phase I clinical data […]

Marinomed Biotech, an Austrian biotech company, has announced results of the antiviral efficacy of iota-carrageenan (Carragelose) against the original SARS-CoV-2 strain and variants of concern (VOC), including the Delta variant. This has been published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.   Collaboration   The peer-reviewed study is the result of a collaboration between virologists at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität […]

Novavax has been granted conditional marketing authorisation by the European Commission (EC) for Nuvaxovid Covid-19 vaccine.  Context  The vaccine is for active immunisation to prevent Covid-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 in individuals 18 years of age and older and the authorisation follows the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommendation to authorize the vaccine […]

Research by the Riken Institute in Tokyo, published in the British journal Communications Biology, offers an explanation for Japan’s success in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic when compared with other countries. The research is a piece of the puzzle of why there remains relatively low rates of death and serious illness from Covid-19 in Japan.  Following […]

New research from Qatar, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, has found that the natural immunity from prior infection of Covid-19 has a 92% efficacy against reinfection of the Beta variant, and a 98% efficacy against reinfection of the Alpha variant.   The study  The study looked at a national cohort of Qataris, comparing […]

Noorik Biopharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company repurposing micro-dose ambrisentan for the treatment of kidney, liver, and respiratory diseases, signed a contract with the Federal Government of Switzerland to develop ambrisentan as a treatment for patients with severe Covid-19.   Why?  The investment, under the Federal Funding Programme for Covid-19 Medicines initiative, will enable the acceleration of the clinical development of ambrisentan. The contract will […]