LONDON – A third COVID-19 vaccine has turned in positive results in the phase III interim analysis, with Astrazeneca plc/Oxford University reporting an average of 70.4% efficacy across two dose regimens for AZD-1222. Significantly, efficacy increased to 90% in the prime-boost arm of the trial, in which volunteers received half a dose, followed by a full dose. In addition to greater protection, that will make supplies go further.
HONG KONG – Gemvax & Kael Co. Ltd. reported the full results from a phase II trial in Korea for GV-1001 (tertomotide), its telomerase modulator, in Alzheimer’s disease, showing a statistically significant improvement in neuropsychiatric inventory and an improvement trend in Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study-Activities of Daily living, the study’s two secondary endpoints.
Moderna Inc.’s phase III win with its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, lifted spirits while validating the Cambridge, Mass.-based firm’s platform, as Wall Street buzzed with comparisons between the prospects that have yielded late-stage data thus far.
LONDON – A second COVID-19 vaccine has reported positive results in an interim phase III analysis, with Russia’s Sputnik V showing 92% efficacy. The news comes two days after the first readout from a phase III COVID-19 vaccine trial reported 90% efficacy for Pfizer Inc. and Biontech SE’s BNT-162b2.
BOGOTA, Colombia and VANCOUVER, Canada – Anvisa, Brazil’s health care surveillance agency, re-started phase III trials for Coronavac, the COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by China-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd., after a suspension of just two days. “Anvisa understands that it has sufficient subsidies to allow the resumption of vaccination,” the regulator said on Nov. 11. Anvisa said it plans to continue monitoring “the possible relationship of causality” between an unexpected serious adverse event and the vaccine.
HONG KONG – Incheon, South Korea-based Celltrion Inc. has gleaned positive results in a small early stage trial for its anti-COVID-19 monoclonal antibody CT-P59. The results were presented at the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases’ 2020 fall conference, which took place on Nov. 5.
HONG KONG – Aprinoia Therapeutics Inc. is poised to start phase III clinical trials for its positron emission tomography (PET) imaging tracer 18F-APN-1607 in China, after receiving the green light from the National Medical Products Administration.
The Chinatrials roundtable went virtual this year and drew clinical trial experts to discuss state-of-the-art clinical trial design strategies, which are increasingly important in a more competitive clinical landscape.
PERTH, Australia – Sydney-based Actinogen Medical Ltd. will advance its lead compound, Xanamem, into two proof-of-concept phase II studies in Alzheimer’s disease and fragile X syndrome.
The large-scale failure of a handful of drugs repurposed for COVID-19 hasn’t slowed efforts to find existing – and new – therapies as well as vaccines that can fight the pandemic, with research updates continuing to roll out.
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