Both the FDA and the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices are on the threshold of revising how vaccines are approved and used in the U.S., but whether that opens to a precipice or a new era of stronger evidence and safer use is in the telling of the beholder.
In preclinical studies at Sunshine Lake Pharma Co. Ltd., researchers investigated the antiviral and immune-modulatory potential of HEC-191834, a novel and highly selective human Toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8) agonist, in chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) models, as well as its activity when combined with siRNA.
SVF Vaccines AB, a portfolio company of Karolinska Development AB, has presented positive results from a preclinical study of its immunotherapy SVF-001 targeting chronic hepatitis B (HBV) and D viruses (HDV).
While the discussions and votes at the past two meetings of the U.S. CDC Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) have generated a lot of controversy and resulted in some states and medical groups issuing their own vaccine schedules, the truth is that the newly reconstituted committee’s recommendations to date are still in line with, or more generous in some instances than, global norms.
Despite some expectations that the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) would dramatically change the childhood vaccine schedule for hepatitis B, the committee is poised to vote Sept. 19 on a much smaller change that would move the current birth dose to 1 month for infants born to mothers who test negative for hepatitis B.
Just three days before the U.S. CDC’s reconstituted Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) is scheduled to discuss and possibly vote on the COVID-19, hepatitis B and MMRV vaccines, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy added five new members to the panel.
Aligos Therapeutics Inc. has patented programmed cell death 1 (PDCD1; PD-1; CD279) and/or PD-1 ligand 1 (PD-L1; CD274) and/or PD-1/PD-L1 interaction inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) and hepatitis B.
Aligos Therapeutics Inc. has identified programmed cell death 1 (PDCD1; PD-1; CD279)/PD-1 ligand 1 (PD-L1; CD274) interaction inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) and hepatitis B (HBV).
Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus affects around a quarter of a billion people globally, and it can increase risk of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Such infection is typically treated with nucleoside analogues, which do not eliminate it entirely. Therefore researchers have been searching for effective vaccines that could work not only in the classical sense of preventing infection from becoming chronic, but also in a therapeutic sense of curing already chronic infection.
Shanghai Yao Yuan Biotechnology Ltd., also known as Drug Farm, is advancing a portfolio of immune-modulating therapies for various indications including hepatitis B virus, hepatocellular cancer and a relatively new rare genetic disease called ROSAH, an acronym for retinal dystrophy, optic nerve edema, splenomegaly, anhidrosis, and headache.
