Rise and shine, another busy day is on the way. However, this is also shaping up as a beautiful day, given the clear and sunny skies — and delicious breezes — enveloping the Pharmalot campus this morning. This calls for celebration with a cup of stimulation, and we are opening a new package of maple bourbon for the occasion. Winter, after all, is nearly upon us. What is upon us right now, however, is our ever-growing to-do list. Sound familiar? So… here are some items of interest. Have a great day, everyone. …
AstraZeneca (AZN) is dropping plans to test its Covid-19 vaccine as a booster in the U.S., Bloomberg News writes, citing a letter sent to participants in the clinical trial that urged volunteers to seek a third dose elsewhere. After discussions with the U.S. government, it became clear that the drug maker was unlikely to pursue plans to assess a third dose of its vaccine, according to the letter sent by New York’s Montefiore Medical Center to trial participants. AstraZeneca was one of the first vaccine developers out of the gate, but has yet to win clearance to sell the shot in the U.S. after facing questions about its clinical trial results and side effects.
A Covid-19 antibody treatment developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Vir Biotechnology (VIR) was effective against the Omicron variant in early laboratory studies, setting it apart from similar therapies that appear to work less well against the highly mutated strain, The Wall Street Journal notes. The drug, called sotrovimab, was tested against certain individual mutations found in Omicron, which has now been detected in at least 24 countries. The findings were published in a preliminary research paper and need to be peer reviewed. The treatment needs to be tested against the whole of the mutated spike protein found in the variant to confirm the result.
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