New findings from an international research team suggest that neutralizing antibodies could have a use as a preventative treatment or as a post-exposure therapy against COVID-19. Their latest findings, which drew on data gathered from Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab’s) Advanced Light Source (ALS) — suggest that antibodies derived from SARS survivors could potentially block…
Thermo Fisher Scientific touts new mass spectrometers
Thermo Fisher Scientific has added two mass spectrometers — the Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Exploris 240 and Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Exploris 120 — to its Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Exploris portfolio. The Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Exploris 240 mass spectrometer boasts the latest generation of system architecture and instrument control software to boost data acquisition and analysis capabilities for…
FDA clears Propeller Health sensor to work with Symbocort inhaler
Propeller Health announced that it received FDA 510(k) clearance for connecting patients using its Symbicort Inhaler to its digital health platform. The Madison, Wis.-based company’s digital health platform already connects to inhalers used by asthma and COPD patients, including ones manufactured by Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Orion, along with other generic equivalents. Propeller sensors…
Insitro raises $143m Series B
Machine-learning-driven drug discovery and development company Insitro announced today that it raised $143 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round. San Francisco-based Insitro said in a news release that it plans to use the funds to build its foundations of technology and automation, enabling data generation at a larger scale, expanding its capabilities for…
Merck, IAVI work to develop COVID-19 vaccine
Merck (NYSE:MRK) and IAVI announced today that they are collaborating to develop an investigational vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 for preventing COVID-19. The vaccine candidate is slated to use the recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) technology used as the basis for Merck’s Ervebo Ebola Zaire virus vaccine, which was the first such vaccine to be approved for use…
FDA launches COVID-19 research initiative
The FDA has entered an agreement with healthcare analytics company Aetion to research urgent questions about COVID-19. The New York City-based company said the research will support FDA objectives to explore the natural history of the disease, as well as treatment and diagnostic patterns using relevant, novel data sources and analyzing these data according to well-established principles.…
Mammoth deal with GSK could lead to home COVID-19 test
CRISPR startup Mammoth Biosciences will partner with GlaxoSmithKline’s (NYSE:GSK) consumer healthcare division to develop a home-based diagnostic capable of detecting active SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The collaboration will use Mammoth Biosciences’ CRISPR-based Detectr platform to design “guide-RNA” that can identify and signal the presence of viral strands obtained through a simple nasal swab, according to Mammoth…
FDA approves Phase 3 trial for coronavirus drug
Octapharma announced today that the FDA approved its investigational new drug (IND) application for a Phase 3 clinical trial for its drug therapy in COVID-19 patients. Octagam 10% [Immune Globulin Intravenous (Human)] therapy will be observed for efficacy and safety in use with COVID-19 patients with severe disease progression, according to a news release. The…
Fountain secures $6m to fund anti-aging research
Fountain Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company building a pipeline of therapeutics to treat age-related diseases by reversing cellular age, closed on an additional $6 million in a Series A, bringing its total to $11 million. Khosla Ventures led the round that drew capital from Nan Fung Life Sciences, the provider of initial $5 million in 2018.…
Phlow lands $354m government contract for COVID-19 medications
Phlow announced today that it received $354 million in U.S. government funding to manufacture essential medicines at risk of shortage, including those involved in the COVID-19 pandemic response. Richmond, Va.-based Phlow’s manufacturing is being funded by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the office of Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response…
Moderna prices $1.3 public offering following positive COVID-19 vaccine results
Shortly after touting positive results from its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Moderna announced the pricing of an offering of 17.6 million shares of its common stock. The Cambridge, Mass.-based clinical-stage biotechnology company announced yesterday that it received positive interim clinical data from trials for its mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate against coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Get the full story at our sister site,…
Moderna reports positive early data out of COVID-19 vaccine trial
Moderna today touted positive interim clinical data from trials for its mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate against coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The Phase I study, led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recorded positive early results from the first eight people tested, each of whom received two…
FDA clears way for study of merimepodib against COVID-19
BioSig Technologies (Westport, Conn.) said today that its majority-owned ViralClear Pharmaceuticals subsidiary has secured FDA clearance for an Investigational New Drug application to use merimepodib to treat advanced COVID-19 cases. FDA told ViralClear that it may proceed with a phase II trial — a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of…
COVID-19 related products could get speedier patent review
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced a webpage to help small and micro businesses apply for streamlined consideration for products that require FDA approval for COVID-19 use. The COVID-19 Prioritized Examination Pilot Program, announced May 8, will allow up to 500 qualifying patent applications to be accepted for priority examination and be…
Report: PerkinElmer under investigation for Medicare fraud
PerkinElmer (NYSE:PKI) is under federal scrutiny for alleged involvement in a scam to bill Medicare for tens of thousands of unnecessary genetic cancer tests, according to a report by Reuters. The news agency cited three unidentified sources and government documents linking the Waltham, Mass.-based diagnostic and scientific instrument company to the probe. PerkinElmer acknowledged that it…
How to get your corporate R&D to operate like a startup
Too much bureaucracy often leaves corporate R&D departments hamstrung. It’s little wonder that biotechs were responsible for 38 of the 59 new therapies approved in 2018 compared with 21 for the big pharmaceutical companies, according to Biotechnology Innovation Organization research cited in a recent Harvard Business Review article. The authors of the HBR article were…
Small study yields ‘really good news’ for COVID-19 vaccine odds
Scientists at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology have documented a robust antiviral immune response to SARS-CoV-2 in a group of 20 adults who had recovered from COVID-19. Their work, published in today’s online edition of Cell, show that the body’s immune system is able to recognize SARS-CoV-2 in many ways, dispelling fears that the…
Gilead licenses remdesivir production to 5 generic drugmakers
Gilead Sciences’ (NSDQ:GILD) said Tuesday that it has signed licensing agreements with five generic pharmaceutical manufacturers based in India and Pakistan to further expand supply of remdesivir, the experimental drug being used in the U.S. to treat COVID-19. The non-exclusive, voluntary agreements allow the companies — Mylan (NSDQ:MYL), Cipla, Ferozsons Laboratories, Hetero Labs and Jubilant Lifesciences — to manufacture remdesivir for distribution in 127…
Selux Diagnostics receives BARDA funding to speed development of rapid AST platform
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has awarded Selux Diagnostics $9.6 million to fund its development of a next-generation phenotyping (NGP) platform to treat superbug infections and combat antibiotic resistance. The $9.6 million is the third funding tranche the company has received from BARDA as part of the company’s milestone-based contract. BARDA has…
Pfizer, Valneva to co-develop Lyme disease vaccine
Pfizer and Valneva recently announced that they will collaborate on developing Valneva’s Lyme disease vaccine candidate VLA15, presently in Phase 2 clinical studies. Valneva is eligible to receive a total of $308 million, including $130 million upfront, according to an April 30 news release. Get the full story on our WTWH Media sister site R&D…
AI VIVO’s artificial intelligence may have found more drugs to fight COVID-19
AI VIVO (Cambridge, UK) says it is looking for pharma and biotech companies interested in working on therapeutic candidates that its artificial intelligence has identified as “top-ranked” for COVID-19. The company says it has found that multiple groups around the world already are conducting clinical trials for 41 of the candidate drugs from its top-ranked…
Sandia researchers look for genetic bullet against COVID-19
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are using genetic resequencing tools to find ways to stop the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic. Biochemist Joe Schoeniger and virologist Oscar Negrete’s work involves genetically engineering a deployable antiviral countermeasure for COVID-19 using CRISPR-based technology. “The goal is to find new ‘reloadable’ countermeasures for viral outbreaks that do not…
ProteoGenix announces a new Human COVID-19 antibody library
International antibodies producer ProteoGenix recently announced what it touts as the first Human Immune COVID-19 library for the fast discovery of potent antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. “Highly sensitive and specific antibodies are critical for the development of diagnostics, therapeutics, and prophylactics to fight against COVID-19,” said Philippe Funfrock, co-founder and president of ProteoGenix. “The new Human…
BREAKING: FDA grants emergency use of drug to treat COVID-19
The FDA this afternoon issued an emergency use authorization for the investigational antiviral drug remdesivir to treat severely ill COVID-19 patients. The authorization for the drug, made by Gilead Sciences’ (NSDQ:GILD), will allow both adults and children to be treated with the remdesivir, the first drug believed to have any effect on the virus that has sickened…
NIH announces public-private partnership with pharma to coordinate COVID-19 vaccine development
The National Institutes of Health and its foundation announced that, in collaboration with multiple biopharmaceutical companies and government agencies, they will develop an international strategy for coordinating research responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The collaboration includes the Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, the Centers for Disease Control…