Four years after partnering with GammaDelta Therapeutics to develop therapies for solid tumors, Takeda Pharmaceutical pulled the trigger and exercised its option to acquire the London-based company.
A new study shows the persistent syndrome of Covid-19 after-effects known as long Covid can develop after “breakthrough” infections in vaccinated people. Other new findings suggest a gene that helps the coronavirus reproduce itself might contribute to life-threatening Covid-19 in young, otherwise healthy people.
Seattle-based Mozart Therapeutics closed on a $55 million Series A financing round, led by seed financier ARCH Venture Partners along with Sofinnova Partners. Additional investors were Eli Lilly and Company, MRL Ventures Fund, an early-stage fund run by Merck & Co., Leaps by Bayer, Altitude Life Science Ventures, and Alexandria Venture Investments.
Investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis identified a compound that can help sensory neurons in the central nervous system to heal.
Coronavirus vaccines are known to be less protective in people with the blood cancer multiple myeloma, such as former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who died on Oct. 18 of complications from Covid-19 despite being fully vaccinated. Additionally, in a paper in the journal Stem Cell Reports, researchers said numerous businesses have made unsubstantiated and inaccurate claims about supposed stem cell products to treat Covid-19.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals announced positive Day 90 data from the first patient in the company’s Phase I/II study of VX-880 in type 1 diabetes (T1D). The therapy is a stem cell-derived, fully differentiated pancreatic islet cell replacement therapy.
Omeros, MannKind-United Therapeutics, and Revance Therapeutics were issued Complete Response Letters from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Seqirus’ Flucelvax Quadrivalent (Influenza Vaccine), the company’s cell-based quadrivalent influenza vaccine, for an expanded age indication for children as young as 6 months old.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Enzyvant Sciences’s Rethymic (allogeneic processed thymus tissue-agdc) for children with congenital athymia.
The Delta variant of the coronavirus does not appear to cause more severe disease in children than earlier forms of the virus, a UK study suggests. Another study found that in Covid-19 survivors, important components of the body’s immune response called memory B cells continue to evolve and get stronger for at least several months, producing highly potent antibodies that can neutralize new variants of the virus.
