Amicus Therapeutics Inc.’s results from the phase III trial called Propel with AT-GAA (cipaglucosidase alfa and miglustat) for late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD) met with split opinions, though Wall Street took a decidedly dim view and left shares (NASDAQ:FOLD) to close at $12.57, down $6.16, or 33%.
BioWorld tracked a total of 295 phase I, II and III clinical news items in January, a rise of 39% compared with the number recorded during the pre-pandemic month of January 2020.
Recently published findings in JAMA Psychiatry related to the sharply increased risk of death from COVID-19 in people with schizophrenia put the spotlight on drug development in the space, which has been steadily heating up the past few years.
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Allovir, Amicus, Basilea, Denali, Dicerna, Jasper, Modra, Regeneron, Roche, Sanofi, Takeda.
An artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm developed by Geisinger researchers that uses echocardiogram videos predicted all-cause mortality at one year more accurately than three out of four expert cardiologists and other predictors commonly used in clinical practice, a study in Nature Biomedical Engineering demonstrated.
As COVID-19 variants have emerged, so have questions about the effectiveness of tests for infection. While the risk of mutations significantly limiting their ability to detect the novel coronavirus is thought to be relatively low, companies that make COVID-19 tests are moving quickly to enhance and revalidate their products.
By mid-January 2021, the U.K., South Africa and Brazil had confirmed that “variants of concern” were driving massive surges in COVID-19 cases in their countries. Once alerted, other nations found these troubling strains rapidly multiplying within their populations as well. At the time, the world had reported 90 million cases, creating abundant opportunities for the coronavirus to mutate. Of those cases, the virus in just 360,000 had been sequenced – and nearly all of them from just a handful of countries.
As of the end of January, SARS-CoV-2 has demonstrably infected more than 100 million individuals globally. It has killed more than 2 million. And the long-term sequelae of COVID infections – to say nothing of the health consequences of grief, social isolation and widespread economic distress – are still unfolding and will be for years to come.
LONDON – After a number of equivocal small studies, the U.K. Recovery trial has applied its heft to turn in statistically significant evidence that the rheumatoid arthritis treatment Roactemra (tocilizumab) reduces mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
RSS
