PERTH, Australia – Astrazeneca plc is leasing 175 Sozo devices from Impedimed Ltd. and plans to put them in 20 countries to run phase II trials for a combination drug that looks at fluid imbalance in the human body in patients with heart failure (HF) and chronic kidney disease.
Gossamer Bio Inc.’s finding of a subset of especially good responders in the phase IIb study called Leda may have taken some of the edge off two failures with GB-001, an oral DP2 antagonist undergoing tests in asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis. But the Street still wasn’t happy, and shares (NASDAQ:GOSS) of the San Diego-based firm closed Oct. 13 at $10.09, down $3.50, or 26%.
Johnson & Johnson said it has temporarily paused further dosing of its adenoviral vector-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, JNJ-78436735, due to an unexplained illness in a study participant. Trial enrollment is also on hold while the company awaits a recommendation on how to proceed from the study's data safety monitoring board.
An NIH-sponsored phase III trial testing Eli Lilly and Co.'s SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody candidate, LY-CoV555, alongside the Gilead Sciences Inc. antiviral Veklury (remdesivir) has been paused at the request of its data safety monitoring board, the company told BioWorld.
LONDON – Apogenix GmbH has added its CD95 ligand inhibitor, asunercept, to the band of cancer immunotherapies that are being repurposed to treat the most severe effects of COVID-19 infection.
A phase III failure of Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB's oral thrombopoietin receptor agonist avatrombopag to effectively outperform a placebo in treating chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia, or low platelet counts, sent company shares down 17.9% on Oct. 9.
As clinical trials, halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, begin to resume and biopharma companies find workarounds to keep the research going, activity in phase I, II and III studies picked up by more than 40% in September.