HONG KONG – Laboring under the burden of a new wave of COVID-19 infections that have raised its case total to 15.3 million, second only to the U.S., India is ramping up its vaccination efforts by opening up COVID-19 vaccine availability to citizens 18 years or older from May 1, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. However, ensuring a steady vaccine supply for the world's second most populous country, with nearly 1.4 billion people, might prove to be an issue. So far, India has administered just over 124 million COVID-19 vaccine doses.
Phase I data on immune responses induced by Inovio Inc.'s COVID-19 DNA vaccine candidate, INO-4800, showed it induced neutralizing antibodies and T-cell responses against all spike protein variants tested in a phase I study, including those first detected in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil. A preliminary report on the analysis, published on bioRxiv, preceded the reporting of phase II data on the candidate expected later this quarter as well as a potential move to phase III testing, pending resolution of a partial clinical hold on the study first announced in September 2020.
DUBLIN – A newly published retrospective analysis of the electronic health care records of more than 500,000 COVID-19 patients has found that infection with SARS-CoV-2 carries “a significantly and substantially” greater risk of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) than does either one of the two approved mRNA COVID-19 vaccines or infection with influenza virus.
The current pause on administering Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) one-dose COVID-19 vaccine likely will continue in the U.S. after the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) declined to make a recommendation on a path forward April 14.
After working 24/7 to develop a COVID-19 vaccine in a historic timeframe and scale up manufacturing at an unprecedented rate, some vaccine manufacturers are now facing what appears to be a concerted Russian misinformation campaign akin to those used in the last two U.S. presidential campaigns.
Researchers working at the Duke University Medical Center report on a breakthrough in UTI vaccine development in the March 1, 2021, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Chengdu-based Sichuan Clover Biopharmaceuticals Inc., known for its Trimer-Tag technology, raised $230 million in a series C financing round. The proceeds will, most notably, help it advance its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, S-Trimer (SCB-2019), to a global phase II/III trial by June. Following its $43 million series B round in December 2019, Clover said on Tuesday, Feb. 23, that it raised more than $400 million in the last 12 months. The company uses its Trimer-Tag technology platform to produce covalently-trimerized fusion proteins to develop protein-based vaccines and biologic cancer therapies.
HONG KONG – China is steadily greenlighting more COVID-19 vaccines and drugs to go deeper into the clinic, giving the country a growing arsenal against the disease. To date, China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has approved a handful of drugs and 16 domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine candidates for trials, up from 11 in September 2020.
COVID-19 vaccine developers should begin testing their vaccines against emerging variants now and assessing booster regimens, the FDA said in an update to its October guidance on emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for the vaccines.
PERTH, Australia – Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has granted provisional approval to Astrazeneca Pty Ltd. for its COVID-19 vaccine, a recombinant adenovirus vaccine, making it the second COVID-19 vaccine to receive regulatory approval in Australia, following the Jan. 26 provisional approval for Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd.’s COVID-19 vaccine, branded Comirnaty.
