GSK has announced it is investing over £270m to build a new vaccine manufacturing facility at its Wavre campus in Belgium. The investment follows the launch of the company’s new respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, Arexvy. Designed to increase the efficiency of manufacturing processes and reduce environmental impact, the new unit will handle freeze-dried vaccines, including Arexvy, as well as the company’s fast-growing shingles vaccine, Shingrix, and its malaria vaccine, Mosquirix. The plant will contain two wings: one for producing the UK company’s ‘non-live’ vaccines, and the other for making ‘live’ vaccines, which include Varilrix for chickenpox and Priorix for measles. A spokesperson from GSK said: “The ambition is to have tens of millions of doses lyophilized each year.” “The new centre will feature several cutting-edge technological innovations designed to increase the efficiency of manufacturing processes and reduce environmental impact,” the spokesperson added. In May, Arexvy became the first RSV ...
Pfizer’s respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine has been approved by the European Commission (EC) to protect both infants and older adults against RSV-caused lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD). The EC’s decision allows Abrysvo to be given as a single dose to adults aged 60 years and older, and those who are 24 to 36 weeks into their pregnancy to protect their babies from birth until they are six months old. RSV is a common contagious virus characterised by several mild, cold-like symptoms. Although most people recover within a week or two, the virus can cause severe illness in young infants and older adults. In the EU, about 245,000 yearly hospital admissions have been associated with RSV in children aged under five years, while the virus is estimated to cause more than 270,000 hospitalisations in older adults each year. The EC’s decision, which follows a recent recommendation from the European Medicines ...
Moderna’s new Covid vaccine generated a robust immune response against the now-dominant Eris variant and another rapidly spreading strain of the virus in an early clinical trial, the biotech company said Thursday. The updated shot is designed to target omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, but the results suggest that the jab may still be effective against newer variants of the virus that are gaining ground nationwide. That includes Eris and another variant nicknamed Fornax, both of which are also descendants of the omicron virus variant. Moderna’s vaccine and new shots from Pfizer and Novavax are slated to roll out within weeks, pending potential approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Meanwhile, Covid-related hospitalizations fueled by Eris and other variants continue to accelerate but remain below the summer peak that strained hospitals this time last year. Eris, also known as EG.5, accounted for 17.3% of all cases as of earlier this month, ...
As companies have flocked to compete in the new respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine market, GSK has had the best timing. In May, the U.K. company was first to secure FDA approval for its shot Arexvy for adults 60 and older, beating out rivals from Pfizer and Moderna. And now—well in advance of the fall and winter RSV season—Arexvy is available in major U.S. retail pharmacies, GSK said Thursday. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare Part D patients will pay no out-of-pocket expenses for the shot, GSK said. Additionally, under the Affordable Care Act, patients with commercial insurance may be covered when Arexvy is administered in-network, GSK said. In June, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended that people 60 and older decide in consultation with their healthcare provider whether to receive the RSV vaccine. As people age, their immune systems can become compromised, making them more vulnerable to ...
The NHS has announced that millions of children in England will be offered a flu vaccine as of September 2023 as part of its “life-saving” vaccination programme to protect the country against deadly viruses ahead of winter. School-aged children will receive the flu vaccine either at school or at community clinics, and those who are aged two and three years or have long-term health condition will be offered the vaccine at GP surgeries. The rollout follows the NHS’s winter flu and COVID-19 vaccination programme to provide protection to those eligible from developing serious illnesses and minimise hospitalisations during the winter months. Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England medical director, said: “Vaccinations are our best defence against flu and COVID-19 ahead of what could be a very challenging winter.” By prioritising flu vaccinations for children, the NHS aims to “break the chain of transmission” to the wider population. Earlier this month, ...
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has announced its advice in relation to details surrounding the eligibility of this autumn’s COVID-19 booster vaccine. As the UK COVID-19 vaccination programme enters its third autumn season, the Committee has advised offering the booster to those at high risk of serious disease and who are therefore more likely to benefit from the vaccination. This includes all adults aged 65 years and older, residents in care homes for older adults, those aged six months to 64 years in a clinical risk group, those aged 16 to 64 years who are carers and staff working in care homes for adults. The COVID-19 booster vaccine helps to protect against severe illness, hospitalisations and deaths from COVID-19. Dr Mary Ramsay, director of public health programmes at the UK Health Security Agency, said the COVID-19 virus is “circling more widely over the winter months, with the ...
Bavarian Nordic has shared positive top-line results from a late-stage study of its chikungunya virus vaccine candidate in adults and adolescents. Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral disease for which there is currently no approved vaccine or effective treatment. Infection leads to symptomatic disease after four to eight days following the bite of an infected mosquito, with clinical symptoms including acute onset of fever, debilitating joint and muscle pain, headache, nausea, rash and chronic arthralgia. More than 3,200 people aged 12 to 64 years were enrolled and randomised to receive either a single intramuscular injection of Bavarian Nordic’s virus-like particle-based vaccine candidate, CHIKV VLP (PXVX0317), or placebo. Results showed that the vaccine was highly immunogenic in healthy adolescents and adults at up to 22 days post-vaccination, as demonstrated by the strong induction of chikungunya neutralising antibodies in 98% of those in the active group. CHIKV VLP induced significant neutralising antibodies in ...
After coming to the rescue during the mpox outbreak in 2022, vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic has agreed to help replenish U.S. stores of its smallpox/mpox shot. The U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is handing Bavarian Nordic a new $120 million contract, primarily to cover the production of new bulk vaccine product, the company said in a press release Thursday. The bulk product order represents $96 million of the contract value. That portion will be manufactured and invoiced in 2023 and will “only partly restore the inventory,” Bavarian Nordic said. Bavarian Nordic will also manufacture and supply an additional $3 million worth of liquid-frozen doses in 2023. The rest of the contract will cover “additional services” totaling $21 million, with Bavarian Nordic getting its hands on most of that sum over the next two years. Throughout 2022 and 2023, Bavarian Nordic says it’s manufactured around 5.5 million smallpox/mpox ...
GSK has sued Pfizer in a US court, alleging infringement of the patents it holds on vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The lawsuit claims that Pfizer’s Abrysvo infringes on four of GSK’s patents that cover its rival vaccine, Arexvy. In May, Arexvy became the first RSV vaccine to be approved anywhere in the world after it received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The US approval of Pfizer’s vaccine followed shortly afterwards. RSV is a common contagious virus characterised by several mild, cold-like symptoms. Although most people can recover within a week or two, older adults are at a high risk for severe disease. Both companies’ vaccines aim to prevent lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV in individuals aged 60 years or older and are expected to be available in the US before the next RSV season. A GSK spokesperson said that “intellectual property protections ...
A new study published in BMJ Global Health has revealed that over 500,000 deaths associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) could be averted each year with the effective use of existing vaccines and continued development of new vaccines to tackle priority pathogens. The modelling study, Global and regional burden of attributable and associated bacterial antimicrobial resistance avertable by vaccination, was carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Vaccine Institute, Korea (IVI) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and become resistant to medicines. The condition has been declared by WHO as one of the top ten global threats to global public health, associated with around 4.95 million deaths globally per year. Science has been playing catch-up to mitigate AMR due to the strain that was faced by health systems worldwide throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Using ...
Go to Page Go
your submission has already been received.
OK
Please enter a valid Email address!
Submit
The most relevant industry news & insight will be sent to you every two weeks.