“I was not always someone who would have advertised probiotics,” Michael Otto told BioWorld. And it’s easy to see why. At this point, probiotics are more often dubious wellness offerings than evidence-based therapeutics. Part of the issue is that the mechanisms by which probiotics are supposed to exert their effects are mostly vague. Molecular mechanisms that could account for claimed health benefits are few and far between. But Otto, who is chief of the pathogen molecular genetics section at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease, and his colleagues have identified one such molecular mechanism.
Following an FDA priority review, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.'s oral antiviral, maribavir, has won U.S. approval as the first drug in the country to treat resistant cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and disease in adult and pediatric transplant recipients. The drug will be marketed as Livtencity.
The Pan American Health Organization is echoing fears that the COVID-19 pandemic will result in a surge of drug-resistant infections, saying surges already are being seen in several countries in the Americas, including Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay and Uruguay.
DUBLIN – A meaty licensing deal with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. is as good a time as any to unveil a new corporate identity. Nykode Therapeutics AS, the Norwegian immunotherapy firm formerly known as Vaccibody, is banking $30 million up front, another $20 million as an equity investment, and could earn up to $875 million more in development and commercial milestones across a multiproduct deal to develop vaccines for cancer and infectious disease.
Even as antimicrobial resistance is expected to continue to grow, the development of much-needed novel antibiotics and antifungals remains trapped in a catch-22 in which funding is available for early stage research but not necessarily for the translational work necessary to bring the drugs to market.
Investigators from the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard have reported new details on a so-called exceptional elite controller, a patient who has rid herself of an HIV infection.
The University of Oxford has begun recruiting for a phase I Ebola vaccine trial, with the first vaccinations based around the same technology as the university’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The sprint of fighting COVID-19 has been in respiratory medicine. For patients who become acutely ill, the short-term danger is in respiratory failure. But increasingly, it seems like the pandemic’s marathon fight may come to be against the neurological symptoms of COVID-19.
Antios Therapeutics Inc. followed up its $96 million series B financing in April with another $75 million series B-1 round that reflects faith in the potential of lead candidate ATI-2173, bound for phase IIb investigation as the backbone of a once-daily, curative regimen in chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.
Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. has acquired a 73% stake of Antejin Biotech Co. Ltd. in a merger and acquisition deal worth up to ¥4.006 billion (US$626.2 million) to expand its pipeline in the field of bacterial vaccines. To kick off, Shanghai-based Fosun purchased about 32.52% equity interest in Antejin from nine shareholders for about ¥1.108 billion in cash.
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