COVID-19

Acknowledging a successful career, a significant contribution to drug discovery and the ELRIG community, as well as a recent OBE, Steve Rees, VP Discovery Biology, R&D, AstraZeneca, discusses pivotal moments in his career, the work he coordinated around the Cambridge Covid-19 Test Centre, and his eagerness to re-connect with friends and colleagues in the drug discovery industry.  […]

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the drug discovery industry to re-imagine how it operates, as well as the roles within it. Rob Howes, Director of AstraZeneca’s Cambridge Covid-19 Testing Centre, believes ELRIG’s Drug Discovery 2021 will be an opportunity for the industry to re-connect as we return to in-person events and scientists return to their ‘day jobs’. When the […]

In 18 months, vaccine research advanced AI in medicine by five to seven years. That’s cause for optimism — and investment — in the digital transformation of clinical development. Jeff Elton, CEO of ConcertAI, who has extensive experience in this sector, shares his insight with DDW. There has been a recent flurry of news at […]

A recent sponsored DDW Sitting Down With podcast covered the bamlanivimab story and how this therapeutic went from lab to clinic in eight months during the pandemic. It is available to listen to here. Lu Rahman selects some of the highlights of this chat with Bryan Jones, Senior Research Fellow, BioTechnology Discovery Research, Eli Lilly and Company and Dan Bedinger, Application Science Team Lead, Carterra.  The background  […]

If authorised, molnupiravir could be the first oral antiviral medicine for Covid-19. Merck (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada) and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics have announced that molnupiravir, an investigational oral antiviral medicine, significantly reduced the risk of hospitalisation or death at a planned interim analysis of the Phase III MOVe-OUT trial in at […]

Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have published a detailed map of where human antibodies bind to SARS-CoV-2, which was generated by a global collaboration comparing nearly all leading clinical candidates. The new research, published in Science, will guide the development of more effective Covid-19 antibody therapies and help scientists develop effective vaccines to […]

India has a rapidly growing pharmaceutical market that, being the third largest pharmaceutical industry in the world by volume, holds a prominent place in global health. Over the last decade, the Indian pharmaceutical market has seen increasing domestic and foreign investment. While the overall number of deals fluctuated only slightly between 2011 and 2019, a […]

Following the news that Pfizer/BioNTech will apply for authorisation of their Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty for children ages 5–11 after showing positive initial data from a trial at a lower dose in this age group; Philipp Rosenbaum, Senior Healthcare Analyst at GlobalData, offers his view.   He said: “It will be a delicate measure to broadly […]

Results from a Phase III trial show promise for patients with advanced breast cancer. Enhertu has been shown to reduce the risk of disease progression or death by 72% vs. trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Phase III head-to-head DESTINY-Breast03 results featured at ESMO Presidential Symposium support Enhertu as the potential new standard […]

Health Canada has approved Moderna’s New Drug Submission (NDS-CV) for Spikevax (elasomeran mRNA vaccine), it has granted full approval (Notice of Compliance or NOC) for Pfizer’s Comirnaty, and it has approved the AstraZeneca vaccine, which will be named Vaxzevria.  “Health Canada’s approval of our Covid-19 vaccine is an important milestone as it is our first full approval for Spikevax. I […]