infectious diseases

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the best-selling pharmaceuticals, leading to shifts in the list with Pfizer and BioNTech’s Comirnaty surpassing AbbVie’s Humira for the No. 1 spot in 2021. That momentum continued in 2022, with Pfizer and BioNTech jointly raking in $59.1 billion in revenue from the sales of the COVID-19…

Moderna’s mRNA Access program (Nasdaq: MRNA) enables researchers to use its mRNA technology platform for research projects related to emerging and neglected infectious diseases. “It takes a community of scientists and disease experts to develop novel vaccines to tackle our greatest public health threats,” said Hamilton Bennett, Moderna’s senior director, vaccine access and partnerships. “mRNA Access was…

Before Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, another more selective antibacterial agent rose to popularity in the early 1900s: bacteriophage. In 1917, microbiologist Felix d’Herelle was tasked with identifying the cause of a dysentery outbreak impacting French troops. From his research, he noticed that Shigella bacteria was the primary culprit of this affliction. He then discovered an…

When a virus jumps from one host to another, it usually acquires new capabilities to target cells beforehand. But the SARS-CoV-2 virus seems to have needed little prior adaptation before causing a pandemic, according to a recent study in PLOS Biology. The genus betacoronavirus to which SARS-CoV-2 belongs is notorious for its threat of jumping…

Reality is beginning to sink in. Despite the availability of a growing number of COVID-19 vaccines and other therapies, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is likely to become endemic in the medium term, if not longer. A handful of coronaviruses — among them strains of NL63, OC43, 229E and HKU1 — are already endemic. For drug developers,…