In its first markup of the 118th Congress May 2, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, under the new leadership of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), devolved into a brief mutiny of sorts as the committee members started to take up four bipartisan bills aimed at taming prescription drug prices.
With its sights set on a series A and an IPO following a £3.5 million (US$4.4 million) investment round in 2021, Scottish biotech ILC Therapeutics Ltd. is hoping to make waves with a sublingual interferon antiviral to treat COVID-19. The USP for the company’s lead, Alfacyte, is the fact that it’s an artificial version of interferon, so it has less of a propensity to cause the flu-like symptoms that can come from treatment with natural kinds, which hike levels of cytokines and interleukins. As a hybrid interferon that is composed of interferon alpha-10 and interferon alpha-12, Alfacyte is “up to 10,000 times less likely” to cause adverse effects, according to ILC CEO Alan Walker.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Bristol Myers Squibb, H. Lundbeck, Moderna, Otsuka, Pfizer, Rnaimmune, Senhwa.
Rnaimmune Inc., a nonwholly owned subsidiary of Sirnaomics Ltd., has received clearance from the FDA for its IND application to conduct a phase I trial for RV-1730, a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine booster candidate.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Arbutus, Atea, GSK, Hipra, In8bio, Invivyd, Myrtelle, Santhera, Stoke, Tarsier, Virios.
As it requested, the U.S. FDA got an earful April 25 as people with long COVID and their caregivers shared their experiences with the condition that has no approved, or even authorized, treatment and is not that well understood, given its range of symptoms that vary from person to person.
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Achieve, Beigene, Bioinvent, Cantex, Dare, Maia, Promore, Sellas, Visus.
While the pandemic is nearing its end, Chinese officials are calling for the development of novel, multivalent COVID-19 vaccines as an essential task moving forward. To date, China has 17 COVID-19 vaccine products that have completed or are in phase III trials, according to the NMPA.