A fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech provided significant added protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death for at least a month in older individuals, according to a study from Israel conducted when the Omicron variant was dominant. Additionally, new findings suggest patients with COVID-19 may have an increased risk of rare vision-threatening blood clots in the eye for months afterward.

Merck

Merck announced that the company will lay off 170 people from Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Acceleron Pharma, which was acquired during November 2021 for about $11.5 billion.

Antibodies induced by mRNA COVID-19 vaccines keep improving in quality for at least six months while the immune system continues to “train” its antibody-producing B cells, according to a new study. In other research, dysfunctional red blood cells contribute to the blood vessel injuries common in severe COVID-19, according to laboratory studies that also may suggest a way to treat the problem.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Genentech’s Vabysmo (faricimab-svoa) for the treatment of wet, or neovascular, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME).

Researchers with the University of Cambridge for the first time leveraged human data to quantify the speed of various processes in the brain that lead to Alzheimer’s disease.

ChemoCentryx Inc. said on Friday the U.S. health agency approved the company’s lead drug for treating a rare, fatal autoimmune disease, sending the biopharmaceutical company’s shares up by more than 70 percent.

Europe’s drug regulator on June 11 identified another rare blood condition as a potential side effect of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine and said it was looking into cases of heart inflammation after inoculation with all coronavirus shots.

Roche announced topline data from two identical Phase III trials (TENAYA and LUCERNE) of faricimab in neovascular or “wet” age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), with both studies hitting their primary endpoint.

A study published in the Nov. 2 edition of Cell suggests that pancreatic cancer cells avoid starvation by signaling to nerves, which encourages them to grow into dense tumors and release the nutrients the cells need to survive.

The U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. reinstated a 2017 jury verdict against Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, ordering the company to pay GlaxoSmithKline $235.5 million in a 13-year-old induced patent infringement case.