Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world, the U.S. FDA is moving away from annual routine boosters for all children and adults. Instead of that one-size-fits-all regulatory framework by which it has granted broad COVID-19 vaccine marketing authorization for all Americans older than 6 months, the agency said it’s adopting a policy akin to that followed in Europe, which now restricts the vaccines to older adults and those at high risk for severe disease.
Frets about how the new federal administration might affect prospects for vaccines were quelled at least somewhat by the U.S. FDA green light for Novavax Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine Nuvaxovid, indicated for adults 65 and over and people 12-64 years old with at least one underlying condition that puts them at risk of severe outcomes from infection by the virus.
Zip Diagnostics Pty Ltd., Menzies School of Health Research and Axxin Pty Ltd., a Melbourne, Australia-based
diagnostic instrumentation manufacturer, partnered to develop a rapid diagnostic test for scabies, a skin parasite that affects more than 200 million people each year.
In what represents just the company’s third PCT filing, Houston-based Starling Medical Inc.’s co-founders, Hannah McKenney and William Hendricks, seek to gain further protection for their at-home urine diagnostic patient-monitoring platform that eliminates the traditional use of catching containers and dipsticks.
Shionogi & Co. said it plans to acquire Japan Tobacco Inc. (JT) subsidiaries Torii Pharmaceutical Co. and Akros Pharma Inc. for ¥160 billion (US$1.1 billion) to expand its global R&D business. The two companies have been negotiating since early 2024, and the deal is structured such that a tender offer will begin on May 8 and end on June 18 with an offer price of ¥6,350 per share to buy at least 11.89% of the minority stake, JT told BioWorld.
Current therapies for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection can effectively suppress viral replication but do not achieve a functional or complete cure. Capsid assembly modulators inhibit the assembly of viral capsids, prevent the encapsidation of pregenomic RNA, and interfere with both the formation and amplification of covalently closed circular DNA, which is essential for viral persistence.
The Research Foundation of State University of New York and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have jointly developed prazole-based compounds acting as H+/K+-ATPase inhibitors and thus reported to be useful for the treatment of viral infections.
Arrepath Inc. has patented new UDP-2,3-diacylglucosamine hydrolase (LpxH) (bacterial) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of gram-negative bacterial infections.
Shionogi & Co. said it plans to acquire Japan Tobacco Inc. (JT) subsidiaries Torii Pharmaceutical Co. and Akros Pharma Inc. for ¥160 billion (US$1.1 billion) to expand its global R&D business. The two companies have been negotiating since early 2024, and the deal is structured such that a tender offer will begin on May 8 and end on June 18 with an offer price of ¥6,350 per share to buy at least 11.89% of the minority stake, JT told BioWorld.
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