Novartis hopes to still play a role in the development of Covid-19 treatments with ongoing research for a pill that could work broadly against coronaviruses, not just the one that causes Covid-19, chief executive Vas Narasimhan told Reuters.
The Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 likely acquired at least one of its mutations by picking up a snippet of genetic material from another virus – possibly one that causes the common cold – present in the same infected cells, according to researchers.
COVID-19 vaccine makers have contingency plans to deal with the Omicron variant that include a combination vaccine against the original version and the variant as well as a variant-specific booster dose, a top U.S. health official said on December 3.
Researchers from Harvard University and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) found that the Moderna mRNA vaccine was slightly better than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Scientists believe they have found the likely cause of blood clotting in some recipients of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
BioSpace reviewed some of the more interesting scientific studies recently published, including research into a potential cause of Alzheimer’s disease and how deleting dysfunctional fat cells could alleviate diabetes.
BioNTech should be able to adapt the German company’s coronavirus vaccine relatively quickly in response to the Omicron variant, and the next few weeks will show how urgently an upgrade is needed, CEO Ugur Sahin told the Reuters Next conference on December 3.
The World Health Organization’s chief scientist told the Reuters Next conference on December 3 the Omicron variant could become dominant because it is highly transmissible, but that a different vaccine may not be needed.
Swiss drug giant Novartis and Belgian pharma company UCB announced a deal to co-develop and commercialize two products targeting Parkinson’s disease, UCB0599 and UCB7853.
Vincent Colicchio – Vice President, Supply Chain and External Manufacturing for Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories – discusses supply chain, manufacturing and training issues pertaining to generic drug manufacturing.
