Lenzilumab, Humanigen Inc.’s lead candidate, undershot statistical significance on the primary endpoint in the U.S. NIH-sponsored ACTIV-5/BET-B study of treating hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The Short Hills, N.J.-based company’s stock (NASDAQ:HGEN) crumpled in the wake of the results.
European regulators and health experts have recommended a second booster dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines for people between 60 and 79 years of age and for vulnerable people with medical conditions, as Moderna Inc. filed fresh data from its omicron subvariant-adapted shot.
The U.S. FDA’s guidance to COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, announced June 30, that they should develop modified bivalent boosters that include an omicron BA.4/5 spike protein component marks the beginning of a new era in the pandemic in which manufacturers are no longer driving the development of the vaccines.
Given that Novavax Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine will be a latecomer to the U.S. scene if it gets FDA authorization, it’s been cast in a supporting role to the lead being played by the mRNA vaccines from Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE. But the data presented at the June 28 Vaccines and Related Biologic Products Advisory Committee meeting suggest the Novavax adjuvanted protein vaccine may have the chops to take on a larger role in taming the pandemic.
COVID-19 boosters for the fall should contain an omicron component, the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biologic Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) said June 28, voting 19-2 to make that recommendation.
While the biopharma industry was widely praised for its fast response to the COVID-19 pandemic, moves are afoot to ensure that the world is better prepared in case another pandemic hits. Moderna Inc. was one of the companies that blazed a trail in the early stages of the pandemic with its revolutionary mRNA vaccine. Now the firm is investing in manufacturing and R&D in the U.K. to make good on a pledge to respond to the next global disease threat within 100 days of its detection.
Instead of “Mother, may I” for COVID-19 vaccines for children 6 months through 5 years of age, the U.S. CDC is saying the correct response is “I should.” That was the recommendation June 18 from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky wasted no time in endorsing the recommendation, which came just a day after the FDA authorized the vaccines from Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE for babies, toddlers and preschoolers.
Just days after U.S. FDA advisors unanimously backed use of both the Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE COVID-19 vaccines in children 6 months and older, the FDA has expanded emergency use authorizations for the products. Availability could follow as soon as June 21, after a meeting of the CDC’s ongoing Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, wraps up June 18.
After a two-day session of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biologic Products Advisory Committee, the U.S. is within days of a long-awaited milestone of having not just one but at least two vaccines available for nearly every American. The VRBPAC voted unanimously, 21-0, June 15 to support amending the emergency use authorizations for both the Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE COVID-19 mRNA vaccines to allow their use in children 6 months and older.
Up to now, the Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE COVID-19 vaccine has had a lock on the U.S. pediatric market, for ages 5 to 17, but that could change as early as next week.
