LONDON – Fixed and constant deep brain stimulation has been successful in treating Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy, but heterogeneity in individual response means that despite promise, clinical studies in serious depression have to date delivered inconsistent results. U.S. researchers have now developed a method for identifying the neural circuits underlying symptoms of depression in individual patients and applied this to deliver tailored therapy, using a commercially available device to stimulate the brain when these circuits are activated.
PARIS – M.A. Med Alliance SA (Medalliance), along with its Japanese partner MDK Medical, has completed enrollment following acceptance of a clinical trial notification from the Japanese Pharmaceutical Products and Medical Device Agency (PMDA) in June 2020.
DUBLIN – Redhill Biopharma Inc. is claiming a 62% relative reduction in day 42 mortality from COVID-19 among hospitalized severe patients who received its oral drug, opaganib, as compared with those on placebo. It is also reporting a shorter median time to discharge (10 days vs. 14 days) and a higher proportion of patients on treatment being able to breathe unassisted by day 14 (77% vs. 63.5%).
LONDON – Industry-sponsored clinical research in the U.K. took a big hit in the pandemic and is still struggling to catch up – and to capitalize on innovative trial designs and delivery approaches that were so successful in speeding up COVID-19 studies.
Shanghai Wision AI Co. Ltd. (Wision AI) has shared positive data from a first-of-its-kind study on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) computer-aided polyp detection (CADe) system during colorectal cancer screening in a U.S. patient population. Published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, it marks the world’s first external independent randomized controlled trial of AI in the medical field conducted in the U.S.
LONDON – It is both safe and effective for people to receive an influenza vaccine at the same time as a COVID-19 vaccine, with no negative impacts on the strength of the immune response produced by either vaccine and reported side effects mainly mild to moderate. Only nine of 679 participants in a U.K. study testing combinations of different flu and COVID-19 vaccines said they would not want to have two different vaccines at the same time in the future. Six of those were in the control arm of the trial, in which saline was injected as a placebo.
New data on the COVID-19 antibody therapy Ronapreve (casirivimab + imdevimab), already used to treat non-hospitalized patients in multiple countries, could potentially support expanding its use to certain recently hospitalized patients with the disease.