Cambridge, U.K.-based Astrazeneca plc has new data from its long-acting COVID-19 antibody combination, AZD-7442, which aims to provide longer protection, potentially for up to a year. Latest data show the intramuscularly injected drug achieved a statistically significant reduction in severe COVID-19 or death compared to placebo in non-hospitalized patients with mild to moderate symptomatic disease.
The U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) joined the JAK inhibitor pile-on Oct. 6 with new measures to reduce the risk of major heart problems and malignancies in people taking Pfizer Inc.’s Xeljanz (tofacitinib).
Exscientia plc has raised $510.4 million in an upsized Nasdaq IPO and private funding round as it pushes forward with its artificial intelligence-based drug discovery mission. The Oxford, U.K.-based company aims to out-license some of its candidates to other companies, while saving others for its own pipeline.
DUBLIN – Iomx Therapeutics AG raised €65 million (US$75.4 million) in a series B round, which will enable it to move its lead immuno-oncology program into the clinic. The funding will also allow it to take a second program into IND-enabling studies and to back-fill its pipeline with additional programs.
LONDON – The EMA set out the reasons for why it is diverging from the FDA on booster doses of Pfizer Inc.’s/Biontech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine, despite having reviewed the same data.
LONDON – The EMA has changed its stance on booster doses of the Pfizer Inc./Biontech SE COVID-19 vaccine and said they “may now be considered” at least six months after the second dose for people ages 18 and over.
DUBLIN – After a COVID-19-fueled funding bonanza, European biotechnology appears to have reverted to the mean in the second half of this year. Firms engaged in drug development raised a total of $1.886 billion in disclosed transactions during the third quarter (Q3) of 2021. That represents a 44% fall on the total raised in Q2, which was itself down 46% on the Q1 total. The sector has raised a total of $11.44 billion so far this year, meaning that last year’s highwater mark of $12.682 billion is still within reach – but only just. The funding momentum appears to have stalled for now.
LONDON – It is both safe and effective for people to receive an influenza vaccine at the same time as a COVID-19 vaccine, with no negative impacts on the strength of the immune response produced by either vaccine and reported side effects mainly mild to moderate. Only nine of 679 participants in a U.K. study testing combinations of different flu and COVID-19 vaccines said they would not want to have two different vaccines at the same time in the future. Six of those were in the control arm of the trial, in which saline was injected as a placebo.
LONDON – Industry-sponsored clinical research in the U.K. took a big hit in the pandemic and is still struggling to catch up – and to capitalize on innovative trial designs and delivery approaches that were so successful in speeding up COVID-19 studies.
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