Virology / vaccines

A clinical trial is underway to determine whether people who are highly allergic or have a mast cell disorder are at increased risk for an immediate, systemic allergic reaction to the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines. A systemic allergic reaction to a vaccine occurs in one or more parts of the body beyond the injection […]

A new study by Novateur Ventures provides a comparative analysis of twelve Covid-19 vaccines that had initiated or announced the Phase III clinical trial stage by early November 2020. The study highlights the early successes, as well as the hurdles and barriers yet to be overcome for ending the global Covid-19 pandemic. The study analysed: […]

Biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, Moderna, has had antibody persistence data out to six months following the second Covid-19 vaccine dose published in The New England Journal of Medicine. “We are pleased that this new data shows antibody persistence through six months following the second dose of our Covid-19 vaccine,” said […]

Valneva, a specialty vaccine company focused on the development and commercialisation of prophylactic vaccines for infectious diseases with significant unmet medical need, has announced positive data for Part A of the Phase I/II clinical trial of its inactivated, adjuvanted Covid-19 vaccine candidate, VLA2001. Based on this data, the company plans to commence a Phase III […]

Biotech company Novavax has announced the initiation of crossover arms in two ongoing clinical trials of NVX-CoV2373, the company’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate. Crossover ensures the administration of active vaccine to all participants in the trials and has begun for Novavax’ Phase IIb trial in South Africa and its pivotal Phase III trial in the UK. […]

A batch of Johnson & Johnson vaccines have been destroyed following a mix up with ingredients at a production site Emergent Biosolutions, in Baltimore. It is thought this could be around 15 million doses, writes the Independent. According to a report in the Guardian, workers at the plant manufacturing coronavirus shots for Johnson & Johnson […]

When variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerged in late 2020, concern arose that they might elude protective immune responses generated by prior infection or vaccination, potentially making re-infection more likely or vaccination less effective. To investigate this possibility, researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and […]

The latest free to listen to DDW podcast episode, Vaccine innovation in the age of Covid-19, covers two articles written for DDW and read aloud by DDW Editorial Assistant, Megan Thomas. These articles are titled: “Vaccine innovation in the age of Covid-19 & beyond” and “Creating vaccines: Why we should be celebrating the life of […]

Viroclinics-DDL, a Contract Research Organisation (CRO) specialising in molecular diagnostic testing and assay development, and ENPICOM, a bioinformatics software engineering company, have announced the approval of a joint MIT Zuid subsidy (SME Innovation Stimulation Top Sectors South Holland) application. This R&D partnership project combines in vitro diagnostic and high-throughput sequencing expertise of Viroclinics-DDL and in […]

Novavax, a biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, GSK and the UK Government Vaccines Taskforce announced that they have reached an agreement in principle to support manufacturing of up to 60 million doses of Novavax’ Covid-19 vaccine candidate (NVX-CoV2373) for use in the UK. GSK will provide ‘fill and finish’ manufacturing capacity […]