In an effort to gain new insights about the novel coronavirus sweeping the globe, Boston-based Biofourmis Inc. is leveraging its artificial intelligence (AI)-driven remote monitoring platform to monitor Hong Kong patients diagnosed or suspected of having COVID-19. The remote monitoring and disease surveillance program, which kicked off just a few days ago, is being administered by the University of Hong Kong and includes Biofourmis’ Hong Kong-based joint venture, Harmony Medical Inc.
The March 4 congressional hearing on the budget for the NIH was peppered with questions about the COVID-19 outbreak, although the general sentiment is that the agency will receive yet another boost in appropriations in fiscal 2021.
Vir Biotechnology Inc. and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. are expanding an infectious disease collaboration begun three years ago to take on the coronavirus. The effort now includes developing and commercializing RNAi therapies targeting SARS-CoV-2, the virus that triggers COVID-19, by developing siRNAs identified by Alnylam.
BEIJING – Beijing-based Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd. said it has initiated clinical trials of broad-spectrum antiviral favipiravir to treat COVID-19. China now has six clinical trials investigating the drug, originally developed for influenza and also tested against Ebola virus disease.
HONG KONG - India has made amendments to the export policy of certain active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and the formulations based on some specific APIs. In a note dated March 3, India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade compiled a list of now restricted APIs and formulations that were previously free to export. It ranged from paracetamol and erythromycin salts to progesterone and vitamin B1, 6 and 12.
LONDON – The EU launched a “Corona” response team, bringing together oversight of all the separate strands put in place to control the virus, as the infection spread to 18 of 27 member states, with 2,100 confirmed cases and 31 deaths.
DUBLIN – Could a recombinant human protein drug rejected by Glaxosmithkline plc in 2019 benefit patients with COVID-19 infection? Apeiron Biologics AG disclosed Wednesday Feb. 26 that an investigator-initiated pilot study of APN-01 is getting underway in Guangzhou, China.
BEIJING – While repurposing drugs may be a quick solution to an epidemic like COVID-19 that has a limited research window, it’s just luck as to whether an already available drug candidate exists for newly emergent diseases. Experts say it’s more realistic to develop better drugs instead of attempting to repurpose old ones.
BEIJING – There was encouraging news when vaccine developer Moderna Inc. announced Feb. 24 that it has shipped the first vials of its mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 for a phase I trial in the U.S. The vaccine was created just 42 days after the genetic sequence of the COVID-19 virus was released.
