Intravacc BV has announced additional preclinical and toxicology data for Avacc 10, the company's SARS-CoV-2 intranasal candidate vaccine, showing a reduction in upper respiratory tract viral load, broad cross protection against circulating variants of concern and a promising safety profile.
Akston Biosciences Corp. emerged from a successful small company that was sold to a pharma major. For Todd Zion, that’s a back-to-basics move that suits him just fine. Zion co-founded Smartcells Inc. in 2003 with technology developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company went on to develop the once-daily injectable self-regulating insulin product, Smartinsulin, and sold it to Merck & Co. in what was at the time one of the largest preclinical pharmaceutical acquisitions ever.
Evaxion Biotech A/S, in collaboration with UMass Chan Medical School, has received a grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the development of a lead vaccine candidate for gonorrhea.
Biovaxys Technology Corp. has announced that Millipore-Sigma, the contract manufacturer for its preclinical viral vaccine program, has completed the bioproduction and batch release endotoxin screening of BVX-1021, the company's vaccine for SARS-CoV, which is being used in the collaboration with The Ohio State University (OSU) to develop a pan-sarbecovirus vaccine.
China’s NMPA has granted emergency use authorization for two COVID-19 vaccines as boosters, Cansino Biologics Inc.’s inhaled vaccine Convidecia Air and Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc.’s recombinant protein vaccine. Convidecia Air is an aerosolized adenovirus type 5 vector-based vaccine. It is the first inhaled COVID-19 vaccine to be approved globally, according to Cansino.
In the hope of preventing thousands of hospitalizations and deaths over the next few months, the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP) voted 13-1 Sept. 1 to recommend the use of Moderna Inc.’s and Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE’s updated vaccines that contain components of both the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and the omicron BA.4/5 subvariants as boosters.
As cases and deaths begin to level out, not showing the up-and-down spikes indicative of the first two COVID-19 pandemic years, the world may finally breathe a sigh of relief. But behind the scenes, the biopharma industry and global governments are not underestimating the evolving SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Arcturus Therapeutics Inc. has obtained an award for up to US$63.2 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to expand its current influenza vaccine program to include development of a pandemic influenza vaccine based on its proprietary self-amplifying mRNA platform.
Ocean Biomedical Inc., a company with preclinical programs in oncology, fibrosis, infectious disease treatments and vaccines, is poised to go public via a merger with Aesther Healthcare Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
Right on cue, the U.S. FDA authorized bivalent COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE to be given as boosters at least two months following a primary vaccine series or a previous booster. “These updated boosters present us with an opportunity to get ahead of the next wave of COVID-19,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said, following the Aug. 31 announcement.
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