BioSpace News Archive

Ocugen’s plan to bring a COVID-19 vaccine developed by India-based Bharat Biotech later this year remains on track following an interim analysis of Phase III data that shows the vaccine demonstrated a 78% efficacy against mild to moderate infection and 100% efficacy against severe COVID-19.

A new study suggests that many patients with long-term COVID-19 symptoms still experience health issues six months following infection, are survivors with “long haul” disease have a greater risk of dying and use a more significant number of medications than patients who have fully recovered from the virus.

Executives at pharmaceutical companies are known for receiving large salaries. When bonuses and stock options are factored into the picture, their annual compensation can jump into the range of tens of millions of dollars, like Pfizer’s Albert Bourla, Alex Gorsky from Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot.

With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s vaccines advisory committee meeting being held today to discuss the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and blood clotting, there’s even more interest in what’s going on in the pandemic than usual. Here’s a look at some of the top stories.

Researchers from Albert Einstein’s College of Medicine are excited with the recently published findings of an experimental drug that reversed key symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in mice.

At the end of February, the U.S. was averaging 65,686 new COVID-19 cases per day. Fast-forward two months and that number is nearly identical at 64,814.

The fate of three cancer immunotherapies that had been authorized under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Accelerated Approval pathway will be determined next week following failures in confirmatory trials.

The same group at the University of Oxford and the Jenner Institute that developed the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine reported that their investigational malaria vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, demonstrated 77% efficacy in children over 12 months of follow-up.

Molecular Partners announced yesterday it has filed for a $100 million initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S., funding which will go toward supporting the company’s work in the development of protein-based treatments for COVID-19 and various cancers.

It was a busy week for non-COVID-19-related clinical trial news, while fairly quiet on the COVID-19 arena. Here’s a look.