Under steady pressure to accelerate development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 and treatments for COVID-19 as the global death toll reached 3,085 people on the afternoon of March 2, biopharma companies continued to detail progress, including in updates at a White House meeting between pharmaceutical executives and administration officials, including President Donald Trump.
COVID-19 is bringing more pressure to bear on Congress to pass S. 2723, the Mitigating Emergency Drug Shortages (MEDS) Act, which has been sitting in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee since Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced it in October 2019 – a few months before the novel coronavirus emerged.
LONDON – The EU launched a “Corona” response team, bringing together oversight of all the separate strands put in place to control the virus, as the infection spread to 18 of 27 member states, with 2,100 confirmed cases and 31 deaths.
BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Finding the next pandemic threat early on; Microglial fresh start helps heal brain trauma; Finding the silent majority; Anatomy study reveals schizophrenia subtypes; Increasing immune activity improves autoimmunity; How cancer cells hibernate…; …And who makes their bed; Blocking trash trashes MSI-hi tumors; New splicing factor implicated in muscular dystrophy.
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Agex, Altimmune, Generex, Graybug, Merck, Sonoma, Therapix.
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Advaxis, Anokion, Brainstorm, Clene, Gilead, Incysus, Inflazome, Iteos, Mapkure, Neurimmune, Polypid.
Rated the No. 1 most prepared country in the world to tackle an epidemic, the U.S. could see its preparedness put to the test as it responds to the growing COVID-19 outbreak. While the administration is pointing to that rating from a recent global survey to calm fears about the risk in the U.S., the coronavirus emergency is spotlighting cracks in the nation’s preparedness.