COVID-19

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 (SEI) between the two, with […]

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 as biomarkers and one day […]

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 of over 600 novel candidates […]

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 Executive Officer. “We are advancing […]

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 provides even greater clarity and […]

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 all global trials to allow […]

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 are already approved and in […]

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 in inhaled delivery of antiviral […]

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 – a subsidiary of Open Orphan […]

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 vaccine, NVX-CoV2373, in the UK […]