Unvaccinated people infected with the Omicron variant are unlikely to develop immune responses that will protect them against other variants of the coronavirus, a new study suggests. Additionally, the average number of global deaths from COVID-19 were 6 percent higher on weekends compared to weekdays throughout the pandemic, according to statistics reported to the World Health Organization between March 2020 and March 2022.
A third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer (PFE.N) and BioNTech (22UAy.DE) produced significant protection against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in healthy children ages 5 to 11, the companies said on April 14.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration extended by three months the regulator agency’s review of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s application for full approval of the COVID-19 antibody therapy combination of casirivimab and imdevimab, the U.S. drugmaker said on April 14.
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting is running from April 7-13 in New Orleans, with hundreds of presentations on cutting-edge cancer research. The presentations run the gamut from preclinical studies to late-stage clinical trials. BioSpace looks at some of the preclinical and early-stage studies presented.
The U.S. health regulator said on April 5 GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology’s antibody therapy was no longer authorized as a COVID-19 treatment, with data suggesting it was unlikely to be effective against the dominant Omicron sub-variant in the country.
The world’s first “human challenge” trial in which volunteers were deliberately exposed to the coronavirus has found that symptoms had no effect on how likely an infected person is to pass the disease on to others.
Paris-based Sanofi and Mountain View, California-based IGM Biosciences inked a collaboration deal for oncology, immunology and inflammation that could surpass $6 billion.
The U.S. health regulator said on March 25 the current authorized dose of GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology’s COVID-19 antibody therapy is unlikely to be effective against the Omicron BA.2 variant.
A year after infection with the coronavirus – when antibodies in the blood are barely detectable – the immune system continues to “remember” the virus and should respond to some extent upon re-encountering it, a study from China suggests. According to new research, women who were pregnant during the recent Omicron surge had more than eight times the rate of COVID-19 diagnoses, but lower odds of severe illness compared with pregnant women diagnosed earlier in the pandemic.
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. will spin off its antibody discovery business into a new entity known as OmniAb Inc., which will then merge with special-purpose acquisitions company Avista Capital Partners and head to the Nasdaq Stock Market.
