Swedish biotech company Hansa Biopharma has entered a research and development collaboration with Genethon. The partnership will assess the efficacy and safety of imlifidase, Hansa Biopharma’s antibody cleaving enzyme, in a clinical trial. Imlifidase will be developed as a pre-treatment for patients with Crigler-Najjar syndrome and pre-existing neutralising antibodies (NAbs) to adeno-associated virus serotype 8 (AAV8), before administering GNT-0003, Genethon’s gene therapy product candidate. The company stated that patients with circulating NAbs will be excluded from the clinical trial of potentially curative gene therapies as well as from access to approved gene therapies. Hansa Biopharma president and CEO Søren Tulstrup said: “Genethon is a pioneer at the cutting-edge of research and development of gene therapies for rare diseases and we are thrilled to be collaborating with them. “This research collaboration further validates Hansa’s commitment in gene therapy and underscores the important role that our antibody-cleaving ...
Infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is the causal agent of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, has claimed more than 6.8 million lives worldwide. It remains imperative to understand the immune responses to SARS-CoV-2, particularly in high-risk groups, to formulate better vaccination and treatment strategies. The immune response to COVID-19 during pregnancy Immunological assessment related to COVID-19 has been performed largely in healthy individuals across varied age groups. After contracting SARS-CoV-2 infection, patients typically develop robust and transient immune responses that include an abundance of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies, T-cells, B-cells, and long-lasting immune memory. Severe SARS-CoV-2 infection has been characterized by the presence of blood hypercytokinemia and hyperactivation of innate/adaptive immune responses. Limited studies have been performed on the immune response after SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnant women. Pregnant women are considered to be highly susceptible to COVID-19 due to immunological and physiological changes ...
The pharma is handing back two experimental cancer medicines amid a retreat from cell therapy research. GSK has outlined a deal to send two cancer immunotherapies back to biotechnology company Adaptimmune Therapeutics, a move that follows the larger drugmaker’s recent decision to stop investing in cell and gene therapy research. Adaptimmune announced last October that it would regain rights to the two programs, each of which are in development for solid tumors. On Tuesday, the biotech revealed terms of the agreement. It will get about $37 million in cash from GSK, and receive all materials, data and trial sponsorship responsibilities related to the drugs later this year. The agreement will formally end a partnership between GSK and Adaptimmune that dates back to 2014. That year, the two began working on a program called lete-cel, which works by genetically modifying cells to detect NY-ESO, a protein expressed on several ...
Study finds on April 7th, 2023, Pharmaceutical Technology reported that a new study has found that Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines offer lasting protection against the virus. The study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that people who received either vaccine had robust and persistent antibody and T cell responses against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, even six months after receiving the second dose. The study followed 2,500 healthcare workers who received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine and found that their immune responses remained strong over time. The researchers noted that while antibody levels did decline over time, the levels were still high enough to provide protection against the virus. The findings are significant because they suggest that the vaccines are likely to provide long-term protection against COVID-19. The study also provides reassurance that the vaccines are effective against new variants of ...
Adjuvants—ingredients that help boost the immune response in vaccines—have been used in vaccines for decades. But inducing a stronger immune response can result in more unwanted side effects, like swelling at the injection site or fever and body aches. Researchers at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago have found that adding small molecules called immunomodulators to vaccine adjuvants gives them the ability to better regulate the body’s response to vaccines. “If you think of adjuvants as a megaphone that stimulates the immune system, then you can think of immunomodulators as a sound mixer,” said Jeremiah Kim, a graduate student and co-lead author of the paper. “We’re able to selectively tune the immune response to reduce negative side effects.” In models, adding immunomodulators to a flu vaccine increased antibody response, and adding them to a typhoid vaccine reduced inflammation. The results were published in ACS Central Science. Graduate student Matthew Rosenberger was also a ...
Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (red) infected with the Omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (blue), isolated from a patient sample.NIAID The magnitude and quality of a key immune cell’s response to vaccination with two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine were considerably lower in people with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to people without prior infection, a study has found. In addition, the level of this key immune cell that targets the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was substantially lower in unvaccinated people with COVID-19 than in vaccinated people who had never been infected. Importantly, people who recover from SARS-CoV-2 infection and then get vaccinated are more protected than people who are unvaccinated. These findings, which suggest that the virus damages an important immune-cell response, were published today in the journal Immunity. The study was co-funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National ...
Stanford Medicine researchers have shown that prior SARS-CoV-2 infection reduces killer T cells’ response to vaccination. These cells are crucial for eliminating the virus from the body. March 28, 2023 – By Bruce Goldman T cells are more difficult to measure than antibodies, but they play a crucial role in fighting pathogens.Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock.com The Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine directed at COVID-19 is much better than natural infection at revving up key immune cells called killer T cells to fight future infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, Stanford Medicine investigators have found. The scientists also showed, in a study published online in Immunity, that getting infected by SARS-CoV-2 before getting vaccinated lowers the vaccine’s otherwise exceptional ability to spur proliferation and activation of killer T cells directed at SARS-CoV-2. Their finding suggests that those hoping to avoid the manifold health risks associated with COVID-19 would do well to get vaccinated before they contract ...
Roche Holding AG, a Swiss multinational healthcare company, has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval for its new cancer treatment. The drug, known as Polivy, is designed to treat patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), a type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. This approval is significant for Roche, as DLBCL is one of the most common types of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and a highly aggressive form of cancer. Polivy is a first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate that targets CD79b, a protein that is highly expressed on the surface of B-cell lymphomas. The drug is designed to bind to the CD79b protein and deliver a toxic payload directly to cancer cells, without affecting healthy cells. This approach is known as targeted therapy and is considered to be a significant advancement in cancer treatment. The FDA’s decision was based on the results of a phase ...
A nationwide recall of organic frozen strawberry products is underway. The FDA is advising people who ate the products to get vaccinated against hepatitis A to prevent liver infection and symptoms like nausea and jaundice. The recalled products were sold at major retailers including Trader Joe’s, Costco, and ALDI, plus other regional retailers and suppliers. Five cases of hepatitis A in Washington state are linked to eating frozen strawberries, the FDA has warned. Two of the people were hospitalized. The illnesses started between Nov. 24, 2022, and Dec. 27, 2022, according to the CDC. The five people who were sickened all reported eating frozen strawberries and ranged in age from 38 to 61 years old. “Traceback and epidemiological investigations show that people with outbreak-associated cases in Washington purchased the same retail brand of frozen organic strawberries prior to becoming ill,” the CDC investigation report stated. The ...
Pfizer, a global pharmaceutical company, has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to its investigational treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, called PF-05217917. This designation is intended to accelerate the development and review of promising drugs that have the potential to address serious or life-threatening conditions. Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that affects millions of people worldwide, causing memory loss and other cognitive impairments. There are currently no approved treatments that can slow or stop the progression of the disease. Pfizer’s PF-05217917 is an antibody that targets the tau protein, which is believed to play a key role in the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The FDA’s decision to grant Breakthrough Therapy designation to PF-05217917 was based on the results of a Phase 2 clinical trial that involved patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. The trial showed that ...
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