LONDON – Conflicting data from around the world on the extent to which the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is reducing the effectiveness of vaccines is generating uncertainty over the need, or not, for booster programs.
The board of rare disease specialist Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB has accepted a takeover bid from the U.S. private equity firm Advent International and Aurora Investment, an affiliate of capital markets group GIC, valuing it at about SEK69.4 billion (US$8 billion).
LONDON – One in seven children and young people who have COVID-19 go on to develop symptoms of Long COVID, according to the first cut of data from a large national study involving 6,804 participants ages 11 to 17 who had PCR tests between January and March this year.
Samsung Bioepis Co. Ltd. has emerged as the first company to obtain marketing authorization from the EMA for a biosimilar of Lucentis (ranibizumab), a significant development for the Korean biosimilar specialist. The approval comes less than two months after the company received a positive opinion from the EMA’s CHMP for Byooviz (ranibizumab), formerly called SB-11.
Johnson & Johnson has announced new data supporting use of its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster shot, after separate trial data from the U.K. showed effects of several vaccines waned after six months.
Less than two weeks after Fibrogen Inc. received an FDA complete response letter for its hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase (HIF-PH) inhibitor, Evrenzo (roxadustat), Astellas Pharma Inc. and Fibrogen have won European Commission approval for the drug to treat symptomatic anemia associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in adults. The approval, which followed a positive CHMP opinion in June, triggered a $120 million milestone payment from Astellas to Fibrogen. In addition, Fibrogen will receive royalties on EU sales of the drug.
LONDON – The latest data from the large-scale randomized U.K. COVID-19 infection survey confirm vaccines are less effective against the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that is now dominant across the U.S., Europe and elsewhere in the world.
LONDON – The latest data from the large-scale randomized U.K. COVID-19 infection survey confirm vaccines are less effective against the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that is now dominant across the U.S., Europe and elsewhere in the world.
Inhaled drugs developer Vectura Group plc has accepted a takeover bid from tobacco firm Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI), a move that has sparked revulsion from health campaigners but has been supported by investors. Shares in both firms ticked up in trading on Aug. 13 after Chippenham, U.K.-based Vectura accepted a bid worth around £1.1 billion (US$1.5 billion), rejecting a rival bid from U.S.-based private equity firm Carlyle Group.
Finding a functional cure to HIV is one of the biggest challenges in modern medicine, a task made so much tougher because of the virus’s ability to incorporate itself permanently into a host’s genome. But Diaccurate SAB, of Paris, thinks it may have a solution – and it’s all down to a discovery showing that the virus seems to make crucial immune CD4 cells go “bumpy”, lose their function and die.
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