LONDON – Astrazeneca plc’s COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective and the benefits well outweigh any risks, according to a review carried out by the EMA, following reports of blood clots in people who received the vaccine.
A large-scale metabolomics study of blood samples from 11,000 people has identified common biological links among a number of chronic non-communicable diseases, opening up the possibility of countering multiple diseases simultaneously.
What started with Austrian regulators suspending use of one batch of Astrazeneca plc’s COVID-19 vaccine has expanded into precautionary holds in Denmark and other EU countries as PRAC, the EMA’s safety committee, investigates whether blood clots, which have resulted in at least two deaths in Europe, are connected to the vaccine.
LONDON – The largest study of its kind to date has identified new biomarkers of inflammation that are both indicators of severe COVID-19 infection and distinguish it from severe influenza.
LONDON – The National Health Service (NHS) in the U.K. has agreed to reimburse Zolgensma, the one-off gene therapy treatment for spinal muscular atrophy billed as the most expensive drug in the world, after a confidential deal was struck with Novartis Gene Therapies.
The European Commission (EC) is investigating whether Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., of Petah Tikva, Israel, illegally delayed the launch and uptake of competitors to its blockbuster multiple sclerosis (MS) drug, Copaxone (glatiramer acetate).
LONDON – A further U.K. real-world study of COVID-19 vaccines has found a single dose dramatically reduces the chances of the most elderly and frail being admitted to the hospital as a result of serious infection.
DUBLIN – Sofinnova Partners closed out its crossover fund at €445 million (US$535 million), a total, it said, that makes it Europe’s largest crossover investor in biotech. It’s almost three years since Paris-based Sofinnova Partners completed an initial close at €275 million. “We didn’t set a bar – we thought between €250 million and €400 million would be great,” Antoine Papiernik, chairman and managing partner at Sofinnova, told BioWorld.
DUBLIN – Glaxosmithkline plc and Anaptysbio Inc. were able to get over some of the disappointment arising from a delayed FDA decision on their PD-1 inhibitor, dostarlimab, earlier this month, as the EMA came through Feb. 26 with a positive recommendation for the drug in endometrial cancers that are deficient in DNA mismatch repair or that are categorized as having high microsatellite instability.
The EMA issued a guidance Feb. 25 outlining the requirements for manufacturers planning to modify COVID-19 vaccines to address emerging variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
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