Infectious disease
In a December 8, 2020 meeting with U.K. scientists and public health experts, it was announced that there was a growing new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
Please check out the biopharma industry coronavirus (COVID-19) stories that are trending for December 22, 2020.
A new and more easily transmissible strain of COVID-19, dubbed VUI-202012/01, has now been reported in at least six different countries and global territories since it first appeared in the U.K. a few weeks ago.
The company and Operation Warp Speed began distribution of the vaccine through McKesson, along with United Parcel Services and FedEx, over the weekend. The first vaccinations are expected today.
Many companies appear to be getting their clinical trial news updated ahead of the holidays. Here’s a look.
Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline dosed the first patient in a new sub-trial of a Phase III study assessing the monoclonal antibody VIR-7831 as a potential treatment of hospitalized adults diagnosed with COVID-19.
A study in Nature Neuroscience shows SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, likely contributing to symptoms of brain fog and other cognitive effects reported by people infected with the virus.
It seems like history is repeating itself from just a week ago. Yesterday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) recommended the agency grant Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorization (EUA).
Shares of Mesoblast Limited are down more than 30% in premarket trading following the company’s disappointing announcement late Thursday regarding its stem-cell therapy trial in ventilator-dependent patients with COVID-19 patients who have moderate to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome.
As we eagerly look ahead to 2021, BioSpace spoke to four biotechs hoping to seize this opportunity in the first wave of COVID-19 vaccines and therapies – or make an impact in the second.
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