Clinical specialities

The UK’s capability to manufacture vaccines has received a substantial boost, as the UK government has announced an additional £100 million to ensure that any successful COVID-19 vaccine can be produced at scale in the UK. The investment will fund a Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult Manufacturing Innovation Centre to accelerate the mass production of […]

Understanding Animal Research (UAR), which promotes openness about animal research, has released a list of the ten organisations in Great Britain that carry out the highest number of animal procedures in medical, veterinary and scientific research. These statistics are freely available on the organisations’ websites as part of their ongoing commitment to transparency and openness […]

9 July 2020 Image: Science in HD So far there are no approved drugs for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease In an effort to combat a growing worldwide epidemic of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), scientists have discovered a new target and a new therapy that has shown promising results in preclinical mouse models, according to […]

Aigenpulse has released an intelligence platform designed to speed up the drug discovery and development process. The Aigenpulse platform harnesses the latest artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools to deliver advanced analytics to underpin scientific decision making. Aigenpulse has built the data-agnostic platform for importing, integrating, processing, linking, visualising, exploring and analysing biological data across multiple […]

9 July 2020 Image: Colinda Scheele / Oncode Institute Stem cells are central to organ development and renewal. In most organs, stem cells are located in specific regions and, in some cases, can be identified through several intrinsic properties, like molecular markers. They can differentiate into various types of cells and divide indefinitely to produce […]

4D pharma has announced that its phase II clinical trial of oral immunomodulator MRx-4DP0004 for patients hospitalised with COVID-19 is now open to enrolment. Dosing of the first patients is expected shortly. The phase II randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial is enrolling up to 90 patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 in the UK. Eligible patients […]

Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals have announced that the US Phase III trial of rheumatoid arthritis drug Kevzara (sarilumab) in COVID-19 patients requiring mechanical ventilation did not meet its main goals. Minor positive trends were observed in the primary pre-specified analysis group (critical patients on Kevzara 400mg who were mechanically ventilated at baseline) that did not […]

The first patient has been treated in Abivax’s Phase IIa/III study of ABX464 in COVID-19 patients at the University Hospital Centre in Nice, France. The randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled miR-AGE study investigates the effect of early treatment (at point of diagnosis) in 1,034 COVID-19 elderly or high-risk patients. The main goal of the trial is to […]

3 July 2020 Image: Halacious The FDA has approved ViiV Healthcare’s Rukobia (fostemsavir), 600mg extended-release tablets for adults who cannot be treated with other therapies due to resistance, intolerance or safety considerations. Rukobia is a novel attachment inhibitor for the treatment of HIV-1 infection indicated for use in combination with other antiretroviral (ARV) therapies in […]

2 July 2020 Image: Nino Liverani The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III clinical trial protocol to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intravenous siltuximab. It will also evaluate the standard of care in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 associated Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Siltuximab is a […]