Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and AstraZeneca today announced that the companies entered into a collaboration to research, develop and commercialize small molecule compounds directed against the GPR75 target with the potential to treat obesity and related co-morbidities.

FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on May 28 approved Amgen Inc.’s drug Lumakras for lung cancer patients with a specific mutation in a gene known as KRAS whose disease has worsened after treatment with chemotherapy or other medicines.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval of Janssen’s Rybrevant (amivantamab-vmjw) for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 20 insertion mutations, as detected by an FDA-approved test, whose disease has progressed on or after platinum-based chemotherapy.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on May 12 for the need to double the capacity of Covid-19 vaccine production and for fairer redistribution of the shots in the developing world, which faces new waves of the coronavirus.

New mutations, or variants, of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 are continuing to be discovered. Health officials in Florida cited a new mutation of the Brazilian strain (P.1) that they are calling P2 or P.1.1.

As a massive Covid-19 surge continues to rage on throughout India, scientists and public health officials scramble to determine whether currently authorized vaccines in the country can provide a mitigation effect to this unprecedented spread. A new study published online has provided some hope, with researchers suggesting that the Covaxin vaccine – developed by Bharat Biotech and Pennsylvania-based Ocugen – could neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 variant leading the second wave in India.

Shares of bluebird bio climbed in trading after the company announced on March 10 that analyses demonstrate the lentiviral vector BB305 was unlikely to be the cause of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) reported in an early-stage clinical study of LentiGlobin for sickle cell disease.

Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive Officer Alex Gorsky told CNBC that people may need to get vaccinated against Covid-19 annually over the next several years, like seasonal flu shots.

The data continues to come in on the various Covid-19 variants, and so far the news is pretty good, according to BioSpace.

Pfizer, COVID vaccine

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine appeared to lose only a small bit of effectiveness against an engineered virus with three key mutations from the new coronavirus variant found in South Africa, according to a laboratory study conducted by the U.S. drugmaker.