LONDON – Izana Bioscience Ltd. has become the third company to supply an anti-GM-CSF antibody for compassionate use against COVID-19, announcing namilumab, currently in phase IIb testing in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, will be used to treat 20 patients with severe respiratory symptoms.
HONG KONG – Another promising candidate has emerged in the race to find a treatment for the COVID-19 coronavirus. San Diego-based Ansun Biopharma Inc. released positive results from a four-patient study of its DAS-181 candidate, which is being developed for the treatment of severe COVID-19 infection.
Given the evolving COVID-19 situation, U.S. House committee chairs are asking the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to direct federal agencies to immediately extend all public comment periods by at least 45 days beyond the end of the declared national emergency, whenever that may be.
The jury is still out on how much hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine actually help in the treatment or prevention of COVID-19, but desperate times have led desperate health care providers to use the antimalarial drugs to treat patients in desperate need of coronavirus cures.
Proteona Pte. Ltd. has formed a couple of significant partnerships recently, including a Germany-Singapore partnership for a drug screening and discovery platform using single cell multi-omics analysis and an alliance to develop antibodies against coronaviruses.
DUBLIN – Three different vaccine technologies are being deployed in the desperate global effort to combat the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but Rino Rappuoli, chief scientist at the GSK Vaccines arm of Glaxosmithkline plc, said he sees traditional protein-based adjuvanted subunit vaccines, the trusted workhorse of infectious disease prevention, as offering the best bet for delivering a safe and effective vaccine at scale, within the tight timescales necessitated by the present crisis.
DUBLIN – Three different vaccine technologies are being deployed in the desperate global effort to combat the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but Rino Rappuoli, chief scientist at the GSK Vaccines arm of Glaxosmithkline plc, said he sees traditional protein-based adjuvanted subunit vaccines, the trusted workhorse of infectious disease prevention, as offering the best bet for delivering a safe and effective vaccine at scale, within the tight timescales necessitated by the present crisis.
The stimulus bill passed by the U.S. Senate March 26 on a vote of 96-0 does more than throw $2.2 trillion into the war against COVID-19. “This is not … a stimulus package. It is emergency relief,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor before the vote.
Following a public backlash to Monday’s news that the FDA had granted Gilead Sciences Inc. an orphan drug designation for remdesivir, an antiviral in development to treat COVID-19, the Foster City, Calif., company is taking the unprecedented step of rescinding its request for the designation.
DUBLIN – Silence Therapeutics plc entered a wide-ranging siRNA-based drug discovery and development deal with Astrazeneca plc that has propelled it toward the front ranks of siRNA platform companies. It is banking an up-front payment of $60 million, another $20 million as an equity investment and up to $400 million in option fees and milestone payments per candidate drug, in an alliance that could entail up to five active programs within three years.
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