The University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM-SOM) and Novavax Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., said an investigational vaccine candidate developed by Novavax against the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) blocked infection in laboratory studies.

Genervon Biopharmaceuticals Inc., of Pasadena, Calif., said the FDA granted orphan drug status to GM604 (also known as GM6) to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

In Fragile X syndrome, excessive repeats of a three-nucleotide sequence leads to epigenetic silencing of the gene containing those repeats, the fragile X mental retardation protein FMRP1.

HONG KONG – A collaborative team from Hong Kong and mainland China has discovered an antiviral peptide that is a promising candidate for treating patients infected with the emergent Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus, for which there are currently no effective treatments.

Researchers from the University of Minnesota have demonstrated that even in patients with undetectable levels of HIV in their blood – which is the goal and the usual consequence of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) – the virus persists in replicating in the lymph system.

• Galapagos NV, of Mechelen, Belgium, said its Biofocus subsidiary signed a new collaboration agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, to apply its drug discovery services to an undisclosed target within Boehringer’s drug discovery portfolio. Financial terms were not disclosed.

An emergency committee convened by World Health Organization (WHO) director-general, Margaret Chan, concluded that at this point, the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) does not warrant being declared a public health emergency of international concern.

• Cleveland Biolabs Inc., of Buffalo, N.Y., Incuron LLC, of Moscow, a joint venture of CBLI and Bioprocess Capital Venture, and Roswell Park Cancer Institute, published studies describing the Facilitates Chromatin Transcription (FACT) complex as an accelerator of tumor transformation and a possible marker for aggressive cancers in Cell Reports.