Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Hugo de Jonge on Wednesday offered to support the World Health Organization to develop a pool of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 technologies, just days after WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced WHO’s public support for the initiative. “In principle, I am sympathetic to this initiative,” Minister de Jonge wrote […] Continue reading ->
While much of the public fanfare around new COVID-19 drugs has centered around the lupus drug, hydroxychloroquine, and a failed Ebola remedy, remdesivir, other researchers are keen to explore the potential of other time-worn remedies – although here, too, experts are urging extreme caution.    Ivermectin, the antiparasitic drug that turned the tide in the […] Continue reading ->
The European Medicines Agency on Friday issued new guidance supporting the use of Gilead Sciences’ antiviral remdesivir as a COVID-19 treatment under compassionate use programmes. The new EMA guidelines on remdesivir recommend its compassionate use  in adult COVID-19 patients experiencing severe disease requiring invasive mechanical ventilation. Such compassionate use programmes are set up by individual […] Continue reading ->
The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest challenge the world has faced since the Second World War, said United Nations’ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He spoke during the launch of a report on the potential socioeconomic impact of the outbreak, Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity.  Speaking from the UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, Guterres said that […] Continue reading ->
A new study examining data from nearly 90% of mainland China’s confirmed COVID-19 cases found that the death rate among people older than 80 was 13.4%, as compared to only .32% for people under the age of 60. Almost one in five patients over the age of 80 were likely to require hospitalisation, as compared […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization announced on Wednesday a global “SOLIDARITY Trial” to generate a large, robust study comparing potential treatments for COVID-19. Currently there are 522 trials listed on WHO’s Clinical Trial registry under “COVID-19.” “Multiple small trials with different methodologies may not give us the clear, strong evidence we need about which treatments help to […] Continue reading ->
Europe has now become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, with more cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from China, said WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Even more worrisome, there are now more new cases being reported everyday in Europe, which has a population of about 741 million […] Continue reading ->
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and Mastercard on Tuesday announced a US $125 million commitment of seed funding to a new COVID-19 Treatment Accelerator – whose aim as its name implies, will be to speed up the development of urgently needed drugs to treat people infected with COVID-19. Just hours later, the […] Continue reading ->
[Medicines for Malaria Venture] EDCTP grants the PAMAfrica research consortium €21.9 million over a 5 year period; MMV, Novartis and other partners will provide an additional €22 million. The PAMAfrica consortium brings together a global medicines company, a not-for-profit product development partnership and leading academic institutions in Africa and Europe. PAMAfrica aims to develop new […] Continue reading ->
While health leaders battle a global outbreak of a dangerous new virus, a consortium of partners is entering the fight against one of humankind’s oldest infectious diseases, tuberculosis. A group of philanthropic, non-profit, and private sector organizations on Thursday launched a collaboration to accelerate development for a “pan-TB” treatment regimen to treat drug-sensitive and drug-resistant […] Continue reading ->