COVID-19

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A big week for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines: Five key developments

By Rachel Arthur

It’s been a big week for mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines: with both Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna reporting impressive efficacy for their COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Here's five key takeaways from this week's developments.

J&J has now taken its COVID-19 vaccine into Phase 3 trials for both a 1-dose and 2-dose regimen. Pic:getty/JHDTstockimages

J&J launches Phase 3 trial for 2-dose COVID-19 vaccine

By Rachel Arthur

Johnson & Johnson has launched a second global Phase 3 trial for its Janssen COVID-19 vaccine candidate: this time exploring a 2-dose regimen (its existing Phase 3 trial is for a 1-dose regimen).

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Study: Early test and treat is vital in people infected with COVID-19

By Jane Byrne

A new mathematical modeling study by Ashish Goyal and colleagues, informed by data collected from 25 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in four different countries, offers some important new insights into the optimal timing of four different antiviral...

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Lilly's COVID-19 antibody trial on hold over safety concerns

By Jane Byrne

Enrollment is temporarily on hold in the ACTIV-3 clinical trial, which is evaluating Lilly's investigational neutralizing antibody bamlanivimab (LY-CoV555) as a treatment for COVID-19 in hospitalized patients. The pause was recommended by the study's...

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Industry welcomes release of FDA COVID-19 vaccine guidance

By Rachel Arthur

On Tuesday the FDA released its guidance on Emergency Use Authorization for COVID-19 vaccines: a move welcomed by the industry as a ‘tried and true tradition of releasing guidance in a public and transparent way’.

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Fujifilm expands its gene therapy drug CDMO business

By Jane Byrne

Fujifilm is boosting its gene therapy offering, taking the first steps to expand its viral vector contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) services to Europe, at the site of Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB) in the North East of...

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Cobra to supply plasmids to UK COVID-19 vaccine developer

By Jane Byrne

Contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), Cobra Biologics, has been selected to manufacture plasmids for a Phase I clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by UK company, Scancell.

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Crowdfunding COVID-19 vaccine development

By Jane Byrne

Axon Neuroscience is launching the world's first crowdfunding exercise for the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, following what it says are strong pre-clinical results for its candidate.