Although research is being conducted on Long COVID or Long COVID-19, whose symptoms continue for weeks and months after initial infection, there are very few ongoing clinical trials on treatments. Anecdotally, there has been what appears to be a successful treatment for Long Covid using Pfizer’s antiviral regimen Paxlovid.
An experimental oral drug being developed by Redhill Biopharma Inc. interrupts a process that helps the coronavirus infect cells and might keep COVID-19 patients from becoming seriously ill, the company said. Additionally, the risk of hospitalization after vaccination with Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine was about five times higher than for those who received the Pfizer and BioNTech shot, a large French study found.
Patients with severe COVID-19 who develop diabetes while hospitalized may have only a temporary form of the disease and their blood sugar levels may return to normal afterward, according to new findings. Additionally, new data illustrate the jumps in U.S. coronavirus infection rates caused by the Omicron variant and the heavier toll it has taken on minorities in the latest example of racial disparity in the pandemic.
The World Health Organization indicated WHO is tracking four Omicron subvariants: BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3. BA.2 has a growth advantage over BA.1, the variant responsible for the recent Omicron surge.
Covid-19 antibodies passed from infected mothers to their breastfeeding newborns provide more benefit to the baby than researchers expected to see, according to a report published on November 3 in JAMA Network Open. In other research, among people with impaired immune systems, some get less benefit than others from the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines while new data help clarify the differences and supports the need for extra shots.
One of the arguments biopharma companies make for the high cost of new drugs is the expense of drug development. A new study published in JAMA Network, “Changes in List Prices, Net Prices, and Discounts for Branded Drugs in the U.S., 2007-2018,” provides some concrete data to the argument.
In a second research report published this year so far, investigators found that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is approving drugs faster than ever.
