BEIJING – China this week approved both the country’s first mRNA vaccine candidate and its first recombinant protein subunit vaccine to begin clinical trials to fight COVID-19.
LONDON – Enterome SA has raised €46.3 million (US$52.6 million) in a mixture of debt and equity, enabling it to take a new type of cancer vaccine, based on microbiome-derived antigens that mimic neoantigens expressed on tumor cells, into the clinic.
Biotech companies with COVID-19 vaccine candidates are collaborating with Indonesian companies for overseas trials and to ensure wider availability when approved. Sinovac Biotech Co. Ltd., for example, is collaborating with Indonesia’s PT Bio Farma to test and manufacture its vaccine candidate there.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee met again June 23 to discuss the federal government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and one clear signal that emerged from the hearing is that Congress will have to provide annual funding to build a sustainable infrastructure for vaccine development and manufacture if the nation is to deal appropriately with the next pandemic.
DUBLIN – Translate Bio Inc. is the first beneficiary to gain from Sanofi SA’s massive $11.7 billion addition to its balance sheet, following its recent disposal of its holdings in long-time partner Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. Lexington, Mass.-based Translate Bio is getting $300 million up front, another $125 million in equity investment and up to $1.9 billion in milestones under a major expansion of an existing agreement with Paris-based Sanofi to develop mRNA-based vaccines for infectious disease.
BEIJING – Chinese state-backed vaccine developer China National Biotec Group (CNBG), of Beijing, said on Tuesday night that its inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate produced a seroconversion rate of up to 100% in a phase I/II trial that enrolled 1,120 healthy subjects.
BEIJING – One more company is joining the global efforts in developing a vaccine for COVID-19. Beijing-based Yisheng Biopharma Co. Ltd. unveiled YS-SC2-010, which was developed through recombinant protein technology and its proprietary PIKA (polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid-based adjuvant) technology.
DUBLIN – Etherna Immunotherapies NV raised €34 million (US$38.2 million) in a series B funding round to progress its pipeline of mRNA-based vaccines for cancer and infectious disease.
BEIJING – Nasdaq-listed Chinese vaccine developer Sinovac Biotech Ltd., of Beijing, said the preliminary results of the phase I/II trials of its COVID-19 inactivated vaccine candidate, Coronavac, demonstrated favorable immunogenicity and safety profiles.
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