Merck & Co. Inc. has reported the development of a novel monobactam for use in combination with its class A/C β-lactamase inhibitor (BIL) relebactam (MK-7655) in order to achieve the broadest activity against multidrug-resistant (MDR) gram-negative pathogens that express a variety of β-lactamases. The in vitro efficacy of the combination of the monobactam – MSD-045934942 – against a panel of MDR and non-MDR gram-negative bacteria was evaluated using in vitro broth microdilution testing.
Current therapeutic options for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) are not effective for all patient subsets and, due to their lack of specificity, often provoke toxicity and off-target effects. CD8+ T cells are essential in the fight against viruses but in chronically HBV-infected patients, these cells become unproductive and difficult to detect. At the recent Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), Matteo Iannacone, professor of Pathology and Immunology from IRCCS San Raffaele in Milano, presented a novel interleukin 2 (IL-2)-based immunotherapy approach that used a modular cis-targeting platform to tackle HBV infection specifically in patients suffering from chronic viral infection.
Shionogi & Co. Ltd.’s U.S. subsidiary Shinogi Inc. will acquire San Diego-based Qpex Biopharma Inc. in a deal worth up to $140 million that expands Shionogi’s pipeline of infectious disease agents and also adds to Brii Biosciences Ltd.’s pipeline.
Edding Group Co. Ltd. announced June 23 it filed for an IPO on the Hong Kong Exchange – news that comes amid a steep drop in China’s biopharma IPO market forecasting sluggish activity in a near-frozen “capital winter.”
Enanta Pharmaceuticals Inc. has synthesized spirocyclic compounds acting as 3C-like proteinase (3CLpro; Mpro; nsp5) (SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19 virus) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of coronavirus acute respiratory syndrome.
Chronic hepatitis B affects around 250 million people in the world and its cure remains elusive. At the 2023 European Association for the Study of the Liver Congress in Vienna, Austria, Emily Harrison of Precision Biosciences Inc. presented the company’s work on using a naturally occurring endonuclease in the development of its ARCUS gene editing approach to eradicating the persistent viral infection.
The family of 32 known RNA alphaviruses are present globally, are transmitted by mosquitos, and can cause human disease most commonly arthritogenic or encephalitic in presentation, the latter of which has a fatality rate as high as 35% to 75% depending on host co-morbidities. Previous studies have demonstrated antibody-mediated protection against specific types of alphavirus infections, but broad-spectrum protection against multiple alphavirus has only been reported recently. Even more, the vaccine-mediated elicitation of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) has yet to be demonstrated until now.
At the ongoing European Association for the Study of the Liver meeting, researchers from Suzhou Ribo Life Science Co. Ltd. presented preclinical data on RBD-1016 in two models of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.
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