By Hayley Shasteen Pictured: Syringe drawing up vaccine/iStock, Diy13 The FDA approved two updated COVID-19 booster shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Monday afternoon, just in time for the fall vaccination season. The reformulated mRNA vaccines are specifically tailored to provide protection against circulating Omicron-related variants, including subvariant XBB.1.5, which the FDA had recommended vaccines be updated to cover in June 2023. The CDC is anticipated to release its recommendation guidance on the boosters Tuesday. A positive endorsement by the agency could see boosters available at pharmacies and doctors’ offices by the end of the week, The New York Times reported. CDC Director Mandy Cohen is expected to recommend the updated vaccines and sign off on their use, having previously made remarks favoring an updated booster. The approval for both boosters covers individuals ages 12 years and up, with Emergency Use Authorization granted for individuals ages six months to 11 years. ...
Out with the old and in with the new: Monday, the U.S. FDA approved retooled mRNA shots against COVID-19 from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, simultaneously bidding adieu to the companies’ bivalent shots in the U.S.The FDA has approved Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s separate vaccine formulations that are more closely targeted to current variants of the disease, the agency said in a release. Specifically, each company’s shot is approved for people ages 12 and up and emergency authorized for patients 6 months old to 11 years old. The vaccines have been updated to include a monovalent component aimed at omicron variant XBB.1.5, according to the companies and the FDA. Meanwhile, Novavax’s revised shot is still pending regulatory approval. Moderna noted the COVID is “on the rise again” and warned of a “’tripledemic’” of COVID, flu and respiratory syncytial virus this winter and fall. Vaccines should remain “top of mind,” the company said. Following ...
Novo Nordisk and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have announced a new research alliance to address ‘critical unmet clinical needs’ in diabetes and cardiometabolic diseases. The collaboration aims to identify disease-modifying interventions to improve the standards of care for people living with type 2 diabetes and cardiac fibrosis. The Novo side of the collaboration is secured through the Novo Nordisk Bio Innovation Hub, a research and development unit designed for life sciences innovation and focused on cardiometabolic, rare blood and rare endocrine disorders. Utilising state-of-the-art genetics and genomics methods, the collaboration aims to interrogate subtypes of diabetes. Along with the Broad’s Center for the Development of Therapeutics, using large-scale cell screens, the research will focus on the relationships between genes and pathways that could be therapeutic targets. Type 2 diabetes affects more than 37 million people in the US. Scarring of the heart, or cardiac fibrosis, is common ...
Coherus BioSciences has concluded the acquisition of clinical-stage immuno-oncology (I-O) company Surface Oncology in a deal totalling nearly $66.9m. The deal value comprises $40m, along with Surface’s net cash at deal closing of $26.9m. Surface Oncology focuses on the development of immunotherapies that act on the microenvironment of the tumour. With the deal closing, Surface became a completely owned Coherus subsidiary. Following the takeover, Coherus expanded its I-O pipeline by adding clinical-stage antibody immunotherapy candidates of Surface, Casdozokitug (SRF388 / casdozo) and CHS-114 (SRF114). These product candidates can boost the innate and adaptive immune responses to facilitate a strong immunologic response and disease outcomes in cancer patients. Casdozokitug is a new antibody targeting IL-27 and is presently being analysed in Phase I/II clinical trials for lung and liver cancer. An anti-CCR8 antibody, CHS-114 is being evaluated in Phase I/II study as a single agent in advanced solid tumour patients. Coherus ...
Sandoz has partnered with Samsung Bioepis to develop and market a Stelara (ustekinumab) biosimilar in the US, Canada, and Europe. Stelara is an interleukin (IL)-12/IL-23 inhibitor monoclonal antibody developed by Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson and Johnson (J&J). It was first approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adults in 2009. Its approval was later expanded to include Crohn’s disease, active psoriatic arthritis, and ulcerative colitis. With Stelara being a high-grossing drug for J&J, generating $3.2bn in sales in H1 2023, as per the company’s Q2 financial report, multiple companies are developing biosimilars. J&J has already settled three lawsuits with multiple companies, including Amgen, to push the launch of the Stelara biosimilar’s release date to 2025. Samsung Bioepis is expected to present Phase III trial data with the Stelara biosimilar, SB17, by the end of 2023. The Phase I trial ...
Click Therapeutics, a developer of prescription digital therapeutic products, is adding substance use disorder to its pipeline through a new partnership with addiction medicines maker Indivior. Like other products in the Click pipeline, the new substance use disorder treatment, codenamed CT-102, will be a mobile software app. This app will be designed to work alongside drugs used to treat addiction. The Indivior portfolio includes the opioid addiction products Sublocade and Suboxone. Click said the partnered app will combine evidence-based behavioral therapy with tailored interventions intended to have an effect on the brain. Privately held Click is part of a cohort of companies developing software as treatments for various medical conditions. The company has mapped the entire brain to discover faulty brain circuits that are implicated across a variety of diseases. To treat these diseases, the company designs apps that present users with tasks that have the effect of retraining and ...
By Tristan Manalac Pictured: Illustration of an antibody molecule/iStock, Dr_Microbe Seagen on Thursday inked a strategic collaboration agreement with San Francisco-based Nurix Therapeutics to develop a potentially new class of therapies—called degrader-antibody conjugates—that selectively kill cancer cells. Under the terms of the agreement, Seagen will make an upfront payment of $60 million and pledge up to $3.4 billion in research, development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments. Nurix will also be entitled to receive mid-single to low-double digit tiered royalties on future sales. The California biotech will also have the option for profit-sharing and co-promotion in the U.S., applicable to two products that emerge from the partnership. Seagen and Nurix will combine their respective expertise and produce degrader-antibody conjugates (DACs), which combine the “tissue and tumor specificity of antibodies with highly potent and catalytic targeted degradation of cancer driver proteins,” Nurix CEO Arthur Sands said in a statement. To achieve this, ...
By Tristan Manalac AstraZeneca, through its rare disease division Alexion, has entered into a multi-target agreement with Verge Genomics to discover and develop drugs against novel targets in rare neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases, the companies announced Friday. Under the agreement, Alexion will make a $42 million payment in upfront fees, as well as equity and near-term investments. Counting milestones, the four-year collaboration can yield up to $840 million for Verge, plus potential royalties down the line. Alongside the drug discovery pact, AstraZeneca will also take an equity position in Verge. In return, Alexion will gain access to the California biotech’s proprietary full-stack CONVERGE platform, which applies machine learning to human tissue data in order to identify novel disease targets that have a high probability of yielding clinical success. Friday’s partnership will apply the AI-driven approach to several yet-undisclosed rare neurodegenerative and neuromuscular conditions. Alexion will have the option to select ...
The legal kerfuffle over the FDA’s 2000 approval of Danco Laboratories’ abortion pill mifepristone, also known as Mifeprex, is heading to the Supreme Court. Friday, Danco asked the Supreme Court to overturn a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruling that would severely limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone. “The risks and confusion that result from the Fifth Circuit’s decision are not ones that women, teenage girls, and the public health system should be forced to bear without this Court’s review,” Danco’s lawyers wrote in a legal filing. “Denying review of the Fifth Circuit’s opinion would eviscerate the sovereign authority of states that have chosen to expand and protect access to medication abortion in their jurisdictions,” Danco’s legal team continued, adding that the case is of “indisputable importance.” Mifepristone remains unrestricted until the Supreme Court weighs in on the case. Medication abortion makes up the majority ...
Researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, have discovered a way to use a simple, non-invasive MRI scan to determine whether an experimental approach to enhance treatment for breast cancer is effective. New research from the study, funded by Cancer Research UK, could help doctors visualise tumours and speed up the development of targeted therapies for breast cancer. If successful, these drugs could enhance the effectiveness of other drugs administered in combination. Common features of breast cancer include excessive connective tissue, which consists of cells and fibres that provide a scaffold, known as the extracellular matrix (ECM), where tumours can grow. Hyaluronic acid, which works by absorbing water, is naturally present inside the tumour ECM and causes cancer tumours to swell, making it challenging for drugs to penetrate, reach and destroy cancer cells. Researchers are able to use experimental drugs that target and degrade a chemical called hyaluronic ...
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