Nairobi, Kenya – Africa is trailing the rest of the world in conducting clinical studies on COVID-19 vaccines and drugs. Less than 70 registered studies for drugs and vaccines are currently taking place in Africa, out of more than 1000 studies being conducted globally. Only 8 of 102 clinical vaccine trials were being conducted in […] Continue reading ->
Geneva, Switzerland – Moderna, Inc., one of the leaders in the race to develop a new COVID-19 vaccine, has come home — again. The biotech startup, which raised a significant chunk of its initial US$ 100 million amongst a group of far-sighted Swiss investors and private bankers a decade ago, announced Wednesday that it would be establishing […] Continue reading ->
As global stocks of remdesivir, one of the few promising therapeutics for COVID-19, run low, the drug’s maker Gilead Sciences says that voluntary licensing to enable more manufacturers to produce the drug will not help expand access, countering advocates’ calls. Rather, the lack of a “coordinated global supply chain” is to blame for worldwide shortages […] Continue reading ->
Tal Zaks, chief medical officer at Moderna Therapeutics since 2015, which has become one of the front-runners in the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, is in fact an oncologist, not a virologist by training. And so it’s perhaps no accident that the innovative “messenger RNA” (mRNA) technology upon which the company’s vaccine candidate […] Continue reading ->
The US Food and Drug Administration Commission Stephen Hahn on Monday apologized for overstating the effectiveness of convalescent plasma as a treatment for COVID-19, after the agency faced backlash for Hahn’s claims that the treatment could reduce mortality by as much as 35%, made during an announcement of the FDA emergency approval of the therapy […] Continue reading ->
An breakthrough new COVID-19 saliva test, named SalivaDirect, received emergency use approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, potentially opening the door to broader testing. The new FDA-approved test, developed by researchers from the Yale School of Public Health, is about as sensitive as a traditional COVID-19 test, but is less invasive to perform, […] Continue reading ->
European legislation on drugs for rare diseases is “far from perfect”, but it is not a ‘failure’ given the amount of private sector investment it has attracted in the past two decades, says Yann Le Cam, CEO of EURORDIS – Rare Diseases Europe, a non-profit alliance of some 930 rare disease patient organisations across 72 […] Continue reading ->
Amidst the battle against a new infectious threat, the fight against tuberculosis, one of humankind’s oldest recorded infectious diseases, is also progressing. Pretomanid – only the second TB drug to hit the market in over two decades – received conditional marketing approval Monday from the European Commission as part of a new, three-drug treatment regimen […] Continue reading ->
The United Nations Interagency Coordination Group (IACG) is seeking candidates for a “One Health Global Leaders Group” that will be established to fight the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Individuals from civil society and the private sector are invited to submit an application to serve in the Global Leaders Group by 31 August 2020. […] Continue reading ->
Big pharma has reaped billions in profit off the back of European orphan drug regulations that are supposed to incentivize R&D for rare diseases, according to an analysis of 120 orphan medicines registered in the EU over the past two decades. Instead of incentivizing R&D for rare maladies, the EU’s orphan drug legislation has turned […] Continue reading ->