Pharmaceutical giant Roche and subsidiary Genentech announced a new Phase III clinical trial for gantenerumab, a monoclonal anti-amyloid antibody that is designed to treat Alzheimer’s disease.
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.
Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. entered into a worldwide license agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb Co. for the development and commercialization rights to the novel, Phase 3-ready anti-myostatin adnectin taldefgrobep alfa for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)
AstraZeneca said the company’s Enhertu cancer drug has been shown to significantly help women suffering from a type of breast cancer that leaves them with poor treatment options, opening the door to a much larger potential patient group.
Researchers at Bar-Ilan University and the Galilee Medical Center identified an association between vitamin D deficiency and severity and mortality of COVID-19.
As a general rule, whatever health condition a person may have, COVID-19 makes it worse. But COVID-19 also causes certain conditions or is being implicated in their earlier onset. Type 1 diabetes and Parkinson’s disease are prime examples. Now, researchers report that the SARS-CoV-2 virus may also cause fetal inflammation, even when the placenta itself is not inflamed.
People who die of severe COVID-19 have brain abnormalities that resemble changes seen in Alzheimer’s disease – accumulation of a protein called tau inside brain cells, and abnormal amounts of the protein beta-amyloid that accumulates into amyloid plaques – small studies found. In other news, seniors can safely get the high-dose flu vaccine and an mRNA COVID-19 booster dose at the same time, a new study confirms.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited’s Vonvendi [von Willebrand factor (Recombinant)] for routine prophylaxis to reduce the frequency of bleeding episodes in patients with severe Type 3 von Willebrand disease (VWD) receiving on-demand therapy.
Amidst news of current COVID-19 vaccines proving less effective against infections with Delta and Omicron variants of the disease, researchers are turning toward the development of pan-coronavirus vaccines that would work effectively against multiple variants. Scientists and researchers at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMC) in Maryland have been doing just that over the past two years and announced they are testing the vaccine in humans in a Phase I study.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration placed a partial clinical hold on studies conducted by Gilead Sciences assessing the combination of magrolimab plus azacitidine due to concerns of unexpected serious adverse events between study arms.
