Newly appointed President and CEO Jackie Shea looks to have her work cut out for her, as Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. decided to ditch its phase II/III COVID-19 vaccination trial in favor of pursuing a booster strategy with INO-4800. That update, disclosed during Inovio’s first-quarter earnings late May 10 alongside a likely delay in filing for approval of HPV immunotherapy candidate VGX-3100, sent the stock (NASDAQ:INO) falling 27% May 11. Over the past year, shares have fallen more than 70%.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Abbvie, Eisai, Gilead, Kadmon, Moleculin, Neogene, Novo Nordisk, Turning Point, Zai Lab.
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Alvotech, Anges, Beckley, Bioasis, Corbus, Dare, Eiger, Entrada, Incannex, Inmune, Lophora, Mycrodose, Neuramedy, Rallybio, Rational.
The in vitro diagnostics industry has turned in an impressive response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but a few problems are bound to surface. The U.S. FDA reported May 10 that the Accula test by San Diego-based Mesa Biotech Inc. has been recalled due to contamination of test materials at the manufacturing site, a problem that could lead to false negative findings with the test.
A congressional investigation into COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing failures at Emergent Biosolutions Inc. unveiled more troubling issues at the company’s Bayview facility in Baltimore, which had been awarded a lucrative U.S. government contract to produce vaccines for Johnson & Johnson.
First results from the U.K. Cov-Boost trial, looking at responses to a fourth dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, show that antibody levels increase more than after the third dose, confirming the precautionary move to give the most vulnerable a second COVID-19 booster in advance of immune response data being available.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Acer, Elpiscience, Logicbio, Resverlogix, Selection, Teva, Therapeutics Solutions.
The U.S. FDA’s efficacy bar for COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest children may be lower than the 50% required for the adult vaccines, according to Peter Marks, director of the agency’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.<
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Johnson & Johnson, Myovant, Pfizer.
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