Reporting sales of its hepatitis B vaccine Heplisav-B pretty much in line with consensus and a phase I/II shingles prospect moving along, Dynavax Technologies Corp. scored a takeover deal with Sanofi SA, which is paying $15.50 per share in cash for a total equity value of about $2.2 billion. The amount is a 39% premium to Dynavax’s closing share price yesterday, Dec. 23.
Driven by a deeply antiscientific political agenda, the current U.S. government is not just sabotaging some of the most groundbreaking technology that has been developed in the past decades. It is also destroying the country’s past successes, such as measles elimination and the reduction of hepatitis B infections in infants to near zero.
BioWorld’s 2022 end-of-year highlights included a toast to the future – of universal vaccines. Even before SARS-CoV-2 vaccines were developed in record time and saved countless lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines were a rare bright spot in the fight against infectious diseases. Bacteria are becoming multidrug resistant far faster than new classes of antibiotics are being developed, viral spillover events and vector ranges are increasing, and climate change is helping bacteria and fungi alike breach human thermal protections against infections.
CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. has obtained clinical trial approval from China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for SYH-2085 tablets for the treatment of uncomplicated influenza A and B in adults and adolescents age 12 years and older.
Advances in antiretroviral therapy (ART) now allow people living with HIV to lead normal lives with undetectable and nontransmissible levels of the virus in their blood. Yet that reality is limited to those with access to treatment. More than 40 million people worldwide live with HIV, with over a million new infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths each year, underscoring that major challenges remain.
The U.S. CDC has adopted the recommendations of its Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) regarding the hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine scheduling for infants, determining that immunization should be an individual-based decision rather than the universal birth dosing practice that has been in place for the past 30 years.
Nchroma Bio Inc. has received a certificate for clinical trial in Hong Kong to initiate a first-in-human phase I/II trial of CRMA-1001 for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Dosing is expected to begin early next year.
Two new therapies are now FDA approved to treat the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea, with Innoviva Inc.’s Nuzolvence (zoliflodacin) and GSK plc’s Blujepa (gepotidacin) offering additional antibiotic options comparable to standard of care. Both products had fast track, qualified infectious disease product and priority review designations.
Orthoflaviruses such as dengue, West Nile and Zika viruses are a threat to public health for which no specific treatments exist. Their protease NS2B-NS3, also called orthoflavivirin, is an attractive drug target because it is essential for virus maturation. Targeting viral proteases has already proven effective for creating drugs against HIV, hepatitis C and SARS-CoV-2 viruses.
The cardiomyositis that is a rare adverse effect of mRNA-based COVID vaccines is due to immune cell activity as a result of increased levels of the chemokines CXCL10 and interferon-γ (IFN-γ). Blocking CXCL10 and IFN-γ could prevent muscle cell damage in cell culture, and cardiomyositis in animal models. The findings, reported in the Dec. 10, 2025, issue of Science Translational Medicine, suggest a way of mitigating the risk of cardiomyositis.
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