Pfizer
NEWS
The best way to battle the dominant Delta strain is booster vaccines. So far, initial data suggests boosters are likely to help battle Omicron as well. For that and more COVID-19 news, read on.
A TikTok video went “viral” in November, claiming that vaccine regretters should take complex “detox” baths featuring ingredients such as borax.
Pfizer and BioNTech reported laboratory assays indicating that three doses of their mRNA COVID-19 vaccine are effective against the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron.
Researchers in China are busy developing several treatments, combining vaccines and drugs for COVID-19, and also working on monoclonal antibodies treatment.
Pfizer’s preliminary laboratory studies have shown that the third booster dose increases the neutralizing antibody titers by 25-fold compared to two doses against the Omicron variant.
Despite having 37 new mutations in the viral spike protein, there does not appear to be any deaths associated with Omicron, although it’s spreading rapidly in South Africa.
Ionis will manufacture and supply the drug for ongoing trials and process qualifications, while AstraZeneca will handle the commercial supply of eplontersen.
The regulatory agency just placed new safety warnings on that drug class, which will impact AbbVie’s Rinvoq (upadacitinib), a drug the company has seen as a successor to its revenue-driving Humira.
Data is still coming in from South Africa and other regions about the new Omicron variant of COVID-19. Early analysis suggests it causes less severe disease than other variants.
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