CAJICA, Colombia – Previous research to develop vaccines for dengue and Zika virus could become the cornerstone for a vaccine against COVID-19, which the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is working on.
The devastating societal and economic effects caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic should sound a warning bell on how ill-prepared we are in our ability to fight lethal infectious diseases for which no effective therapies or vaccines currently exist. Indirectly, the intense public attention on companies that are engaged in developing COVID-19 cures is also spilling over to companies researching to uncover new anti-infectives that will be needed to replace the diminishing arsenal of effective therapies to combat drug-resistant bacteria and fungi. This is certainly evident among public companies in the space, with the BioWorld Infectious Diseases index showing an increasing upward trend since the beginning of the year. At market close on May 11, the index had, in fact, grown in value by a whopping 47%.
Rebiotix Inc. said RBX-2660, its standardized, non-antibiotic, microbiome-based therapy designed to reduce Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) infection recurrences, notched positive preliminary results on the primary efficacy endpoint of its ongoing pivotal phase III trial.
DUBLIN – Shares in Valneva SE rose by as much as 32% during early trading April 30 on news that Pfizer Inc. is paying $130 million up front to in-license its Lyme disease candidate vaccine, VLA-15.
A pair of good-news items from Chimerix Inc. pushed the Durham, N.C.-based company’s stock (NASDAQ:CMRX) to $2.15, closing up 64 cents, or 42%, higher as backers reacted to near-term NDA plans for smallpox countermeasure brincidofovir (BCV) and the start of a phase II/III trial with dociparstat sodium (DSTAT) in COVID-19 patients with acute lung injury (ALI).
By analyzing the antibody response of a survivor of Marburg virus infection, researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch and Vanderbilt University Medical Center have gained new insights into the function of non-neutralizing antibodies in fighting infections.
With completion of a $120 million series B financing, Affinivax Inc. said it's poised to advance several new vaccine candidates for hospital-associated infections into the clinic even as its partner, Astellas Pharma Inc., carries its lead pneumococcal vaccine candidate, ASP-3772, through an upcoming phase III program.
New pivotal data on Scynexis Inc.'s lead candidate, an antifungal for vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC), have cleared the path to an NDA filing in the indication later this year and a potential approval in mid-2021.
“Vaccines, obviously, are the ultimate solution for pandemics,” Rino Rappuoli told BioWorld. They have, he added, “already eliminated a lot of pandemic threats – smallpox, influenza, poliomyelitis.” And the road to normalcy from the current pandemic, or any pandemic, is likely to be open only once there is a vaccine.
Specific therapies against a new disease take time to develop. But there are methods that can speed up that development – and in the meantime, there are ways to make do with what’s already in the cupboard.
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