HONG KONG – U.S., China and the Netherlands-based Harbour Biomed Therapeutics Ltd. has teamed up with Mount Sinai Health System, New York City's largest academic medical system, to develop novel biotherapies in oncology and immunology. The two parties will also be using Harbour’s H2L2 Harbour Mice platform to develop a monoclonal antibody (MAb) against the coronavirus that has turned into a global epidemic.
LONDON – The EU launched a “Corona” response team, bringing together oversight of all the separate strands put in place to control the virus, as the infection spread to 18 of 27 member states, with 2,100 confirmed cases and 31 deaths.
DUBLIN – Could a recombinant human protein drug rejected by Glaxosmithkline plc in 2019 benefit patients with COVID-19 infection? Apeiron Biologics AG disclosed Wednesday Feb. 26 that an investigator-initiated pilot study of APN-01 is getting underway in Guangzhou, China.
BEIJING – While repurposing drugs may be a quick solution to an epidemic like COVID-19 that has a limited research window, it’s just luck as to whether an already available drug candidate exists for newly emergent diseases. Experts say it’s more realistic to develop better drugs instead of attempting to repurpose old ones.
In a flurry of catch-up following the coronavirus outbreak in China, a number of biopharma companies have announced development within the last few weeks to address the ever-spreading infection known as COVID-19.
LONDON – Six weeks on from the initial alert, “the window of opportunity” to control the COVID-19 epidemic is “narrowing,” according to the latest assessment from WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
LONDON – As the death toll passed 1,000 and the number of confirmed cases reached 42,000, the World Health Organization on Feb. 11 convened 400 scientists at a global research forum to draw up an R&D blueprint for COVID-19.
BEIJING – Chinese biotech companies are focusing on fighting the novel coronavirus, now named as COVID-19 by the WHO, after the country’s government called for all possible assistance.
SEATTLE – Tracing the family tree of COVID-19 through its evolving DNA sequence makes it possible to disprove many false claims circulating on social media about the novel coronavirus, and, in particular, that it was generated in a covert biological weapons program. “From everything I’ve looked at, there is zero evidence for genetic engineering; it looks like normal evolution,” said Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who has been using genomes sequences taken from patient samples to track the spread of the virus since Jan. 11.
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