A year and a half gone, two HIV vaccine studies shut down. That’s the case with the Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. of Johnson and Johnson as the phase III Mosaico study of its HIV vaccine regimen was not effective in preventing infection compared to placebo. Based on a data and safety monitoring board’s report saying the study was not expected to hit its primary endpoint, Janssen discontinued the clinical trial more than a year ahead of its estimated March 2024 completion date.
Vector Biopharma AG has secured a $30 million series A funding commitment from founding investor Versant Ventures to take forward a new gene delivery platform developed by Andreas Plückthun, of the University of Zurich, in Switzerland.
The FDA and the CDC have jointly recommended a temporary pause in the further rollout of Johnson & Johnson Co.’s COVID-19 vaccine while they investigate six rare clotting cases in adults ages 18 to 48.
LONDON – Results from two non-randomized phase I/II trials of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V that recently received conditional regulatory approval show both a frozen and a freeze-dried formulation of the two-shot vaccine had a good safety profile and induced antibody responses in all 76 participants within 21 days.
LONDON – A veteran of the European vaccines industry has brought together three companies in three countries, in what is described as an ultra-fast-track COVID-19 vaccine development program. From a standing start less than three months ago, the three biotechs, Reithera Srl in Rome, Leukocare AG in Munich, Germany, and Univercells SA in Brussels, Belgium, have advanced to GMP manufacturing, with first-in-human studies due to start in June.
LONDON – Researchers at the Jenner Institute in Oxford have given an inside view of how they are accelerating clinical development of a COVID-19 vaccine and at the same time putting in place commercial manufacturing for when phase III efficacy data are available, expected in August or September.