While overall clinical trial activity appears to be slowing, June was the busiest month for the year, and, in fact, all of last year, with a total of 436 items of news related to phase I, phase II and phase III research.
Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp. released results from a phase III trial of its enterovirus 71 (EV71) vaccine that showed efficacy of 100% against a virus that causes hand, foot and mouth disease and continues to emerge on a regular basis across Asia.
While phase I-III clinical trial data continue to rise above the same timeframe in 2020, the gap is closing and a smaller percentage of this year’s reports are focused on the COVID-19 pandemic.
In reporting positive data from a phase III study of sugemalimab in treating stage III non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), Cstone Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. and Eqrx Inc. have the first anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody demonstrating progression-free survival in patients with concurrent or sequential chemoradiotherapy. The data built on positive data released in August from another phase III study showing sugemalimab (CS-1001) prolonged PFS when used as a first-line treatment for stage IV squamous and nonsquamous NSCLC plus standard-of-care chemotherapy, hitting the study’s primary endpoint.
HONG KONG – Following a wave of concern about the efficacy of two COVID-19 vaccine candidates developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), interim analysis of an ongoing phase III trial, published May 26 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has shown that adults receiving at least one dose of either of the company’s two inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines had significantly reduced the risk of symptomatic COVID-19.
The volume of phase I-III clinical trial data so far in 2021 is a full 26% more than it was by this point last year, yet the proportion of news focused on the COVID-19 pandemic continues at much the same rate.
BioWorld tracked a total of 295 phase I, II and III clinical news items in January, a rise of 39% compared with the number recorded during the pre-pandemic month of January 2020.
BioWorld tracked a total of 295 phase I, II and III clinical news items in January, a rise of 39% compared with the number recorded during the pre-pandemic month of January 2020.
Clinical and regulatory data reported in 2020 are up 24% and 47%, respectively, over the prior year, proving to be the busiest 12 months on record for the biopharma industry, in spite of, or perhaps because of, a deadly global pandemic.
