Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Aivita, Awakn, Biontech, Bridgebio, Curacle, Eton, Gilead, Innovent, Merck, Neocura, Pfizer, Polyphor, PF Argentum, Trillium.
Plants could be an alternative vaccine platform for both COVID-19 and future pandemics, shaking up a biologics sector that is currently mostly protein-based. South Korean company Bioapplications Inc., for example, is aiming to have a plant-derived booster shot for COVID-19 in the clinic in 2022.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Agenus, Axial, Bharat, Biontech, Bio-Path, Eli Lilly, Medicenna, Novartis, Novavax, Ocugen, Pfizer, Quell, Vitti.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Angel, Atamyo, Axcella, Biovie, Corvus, Emmaus, Geron, Mereo, Moderna, Nova Mentis, Precigen, Seagen.
Celltrion Inc. recently received FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) for its Diatrust COVID-19 Ag home test. “With the FDA approval, we will now prioritize getting the test kits to the U.S. and into users’ hands as soon as possible,” a spokesperson for the Incheon, South Korea-based Celltrion told BioWorld. The test kits will be distributed through Celltrion’s U.S. arm, Celltrion USA Inc. Celltrion is currently in the final stage of negotiations with the U.S. government, as well as online and offline distributors.
The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted 17-0, with one abstention, that the benefits of Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE pediatric formulation of its two-dose COVID-19 vaccine outweigh its risks for children ages 5 through 11. Many of those votes came with caveats, as the VRBPAC members struggled with the unknowns of the vaccine and the fear that schools would mandate its use, even though it would still be considered experimental if the FDA grants it an emergency use authorization.
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