Wuxi Apptec quit its membership in the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) after U.S. Congressman Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) sent a March 5 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, asking the Department of Justice to investigate BIO because its lobbying efforts on behalf of Wuxi suggested it was operating as an unregistered agent of a foreign company while advancing the interests of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party.
Wuxi Apptec quit its membership in the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) after U.S. Congressman Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) sent a March 5 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, asking the Department of Justice to investigate BIO because its lobbying efforts on behalf of Wuxi suggested it was operating as an unregistered agent of a foreign company while advancing the interests of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party.
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, has awarded Vir Biotechnology Inc. approximately $50 million in new funding to advance the development of novel monoclonal antibody (MAb) candidates and delivery solutions to widen the applicability of MAbs in COVID-19 and in pandemic preparedness and response.
Vir Biotechnology Inc. said it won’t be discussing further the phase II data from the influenza A prevention study called Peninsula until the company’s second-quarter earnings update Aug. 3, and a closer look at the results has yet to decide the fate of monoclonal antibody VIR-2482, which missed its primary and secondary endpoints.
Moderna Inc.’s mixed results in mid-February from a trial with its mRNA influenza vaccine served to emphasize the need for a more comprehensive preventer of the still problematic-for-many seasonal bug – a space where Vir Biotechnology Inc. has been busy and is slated to report closely watched phase II data from the study called Peninsula in late spring or early summer of this year.
During the first round of discussion at its two-day hearing on a World Trade Organization proposal to expand the intellectual property (IP) waiver from COVID-19 vaccines to diagnostics and therapies, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) got an earful from both sides of the debate.
During the first round of discussion at its two-day hearing on a World Trade Organization proposal to expand the intellectual property (IP) waiver from COVID-19 vaccines to diagnostics and therapies, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) got an earful from both sides of the debate.
What was once effective is now a non-starter. Newly updated guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) caution against using the COVID-19 treatments sotrovimab, from GSK plc and Vir Biotechnology Inc., and Regen-Cov (casirivimab + imdevimab), from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. Omicron, the group said, has rendered the monoclonal antibodies ineffective.
Glaxosmithkline plc and Vir Biotechnology Inc.’s sotrovimab has become the latest COVID-19 antibody to be pulled from the market in the U.S., after the FDA revoked its emergency use authorization (EUA) because of the rise of the omicron BA.2 subvariant.