Odeon Therapeutics Inc. has acquired rights to two cancer candidates from Obi Pharma Inc. in a deal worth up to $200 million. The transaction gives Shanghai-based Odeon rights to develop, register, and commercialize the antibody-drug conjugate OBI-999 and a therapeutic cancer vaccine OBI-833 in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau.
With the first global approval by Health Canada in hand, Medicago Inc. aims to provide 20 million doses this year of Covifenz – which itself represents another first, as a plant-originated, virus-like particle, recombinant, adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine. “Hopefully, if all goes well, we’ll be able to do it faster than the last day of the last month” of the year, said Brian Ward, medical officer of Quebec City-based Medicago, a unit of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp., which partnered on Covifenz with Glaxosmithkline plc (GSK).
On the success of last year’s establishment of a global mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub in South Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced its next step Feb. 23: the creation of a global biomanufacturing training hub in South Korea that will serve low- and middle-income countries wanting to produce biologics, such as vaccines, insulin, monoclonal antibodies and cancer treatments.
In the quest for regulatory approval for their COVID-19 vaccine, Sanofi SA and Glaxosmithkline plc (GSK) said they plan to submit their phase III and booster efficacy study data showing it induced a significant increase in neutralizing antibodies after a primary series of mRNA or adenovirus vaccines.
Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc.’s key interim data from the phase III trials of its recombinant SARS-CoV-2 fusion protein vaccine, V-01, has shown efficacy against the omicron variant. The phase III trial aims to evaluate the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of V-01 as a booster in adults older than 18 after they have received two doses of inactivated vaccines.
China is the latest country mixing things up when it comes to COVID-19 boosters. Since boosters were implemented in China in October, adults have been given a third dose of their primary vaccine regimen, which has consisted of one of three inactivated vaccines produced by Sinopharm Group Co. Ltd. and Sinovac Biotech Ltd.
Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc.’s key interim data from the phase III trials of its recombinant SARS-CoV-2 fusion protein vaccine, V-01, has shown efficacy against the omicron variant. The phase III trial aims to evaluate the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of V-01 as a booster in adults older than 18 after they have received two doses of inactivated vaccines.
Glaxosmithkline plc has voluntarily paused a late-stage trial of its potential respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) maternal vaccine candidate in pregnant women following a safety warning. In a brief statement, the London-based firm said it also paused recruitment in two other trials investigating the drug in pregnant women.
As the Biden administration continues to play musical chairs with key U.S. federal health leadership positions, its latest move is naming Francis Collins to serve as science adviser to the president and co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology.
Delivering important but likely unwelcome news to Americans increasingly trying put the COVID-19 pandemic behind them, new research published Feb. 11 by the CDC suggested that "protection conferred by mRNA vaccines waned in the months after receipt of a third vaccine dose reinforces the importance of further consideration of additional doses to sustain or improve protection against COVID-19-associated [emergency department or urgent care (ED/UC)] encounters and COVID-19 hospitalizations."
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