First, the good news about pandemics – and in 2024, there was big “good news.” Science Magazine named lenacapavir (Gilead Sciences Inc.) as the Breakthrough of the Year. In two separate trials, lenacapavir prevented HIV transmission with 100% efficacy in cisgender African women and 99.9% efficacy in men and gender-diverse persons when administered twice a year.
SK Bioscience Co. Ltd. won €50 million (₩75.5 billion, US$52.03 million) up front from Sanofi SA to expand an earlier agreement to develop and commercialize novel pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs). The first deal resulted in GBP-410 (SP-0202), its pediatric 21-valent PCV candidate that moved into phase III study last week.
GC Biopharma Corp. will buy plasma collector Abo Holdings Inc. in a ₩138 billion (US$96.28 million) cash acquisition as the vaccine and plasma-derived medicinal products developer works to accelerate entry of Alyglo (IVIG-SN 10%) in the U.S., where it was approved last year.
SK Bioscience Co. Ltd. gained approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee in Australia to start phase I/II trials of GBP-560, its mRNA-based vaccine candidate for mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis virus, with funding from Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
“I think elections are like pregnancy. … Everyone puts all of the energy into D-day – the birth. We’ve had the gender reveal, but what really, really matters is what happens now and the path ahead.” That was the instant response of Emma Walmsley, CEO of GSK plc, reacting to breaking news from the U.S. that Donald Trump has won a second term in office.
DBV Technologies SA CEO Daniel Tasse said his firm will meet “very shortly” with the U.S. FDA for talks that will formalize an accelerated approval process for the Viaskin Peanut allergy patch. “Did this take longer than expected? Yes, it did,” Tasse said during a conference call update. “But this was a choice we made, and it was a necessary choice” in order to nail down precise requirements for the product.
Wall Street promptly began trying to weigh the compound’s marketplace odds after Merck & Co. Inc. detailed positive data from the phase IIb/III trial known as MK-1654-004 with clesrovimab, an investigational prophylactic monoclonal antibody designed to protect infants from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease during their first RSV season. The results, plus interim findings from the ongoing phase III experiment dubbed MK-1654-007 were offered during IDWeek 2024 in Los Angeles.
Shares of Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) dropped nearly 20% Oct. 16 to close at $10.15 after the company reported a serious adverse event had prompted a U.S. FDA clinical hold for its COVID-19-influenza combination and standalone flu vaccine candidates.
Clostridioides difficile has been traditionally isolated from health care facilities' inpatients, but it is increasingly being identified in people who have not recently been hospitalized and is more and more found in community settings. Investigators from Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania have developed an mRNA-LNP vaccine with promising results in preventing and controlling C. difficile infection.
SK Bioscience Co. Ltd., of Seongnam-si, South Korea, said Oct. 8 that it will acquire a $3 million stake in Fina Biosolutions LLC to become the first and sole strategic investor of the Rockville, Md.-based vaccine specialist. For SK Bioscience, the investment is slated to boost its vaccine R&D capabilities, the company said, which currently includes manufacturing of pneumococcal and typhoid conjugate vaccines.
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