The U.S. Food and Drug Administration awarded Roche’s Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate Breakthrough Therapy Designation, bringing the IgG1 antibody gantenerumab closer to finally receiving full FDA approval. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted approval to Octapharma USA for Octagam 10% [Immune Globulin Intravenous (Human)], the first intravenous immunoglobulin to be indicated for the treatment of adult dermatomyositis, a rare immune-mediated inflammatory disease.

An experimental new type of antibody drug from IGM Bioscience Inc. may be more potent at inhibiting the coronavirus and its variants than antibody therapies currently in use, research in mice suggests. Vaping has been linked with higher rates of Covid-19 in some studies.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer Inc.’s supplemental Biologics License Application for Panzyga to treat adult patients with a rare neurological disease of the peripheral nerves called chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP).

Surface Oncology agreed to grant exclusive worldwide licensing rights to GlaxoSmithKline for the development and commercialization of the Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech company’s SRF813, a fully human IgG1 antibody and immunotherapy designed to treat cancer.

Germany-based CureVac NV published detailed interim Phase I data of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate CVnCoV.

In a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines, Covid-19 antibodies last at least three months and so do symptoms for many.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for Abbott Laboratories’ lab-based Covid-19 antibody blood test.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health is launching a clinical trial of a combination of Gilead Sciences’ antiviral drug remdesivir (Vitrakvy) and hyperimmune intravenous immunoglobulin (hIVIG).

A lower supply of a certain type of immune cell in older people that is critical to fighting foreign invaders may help explain their vulnerability to severe Covid-19, scientists say. An antiseptic nasal spray containing povidone-iodine may help curb transmission of the new coronavirus, preliminary research suggests.