Research Roundup: Tech hub to boost African vaccine access, UK launches trial on ivermectin, and FDA authorizes saliva-based antibody test

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email.University of Cambridge scientists have identified 200 existing drugs as possible candidates to repurpose against COVID-19 and validated two of them in early tests—the antimalarial therapy proguanil and rheumatoid arthritis medication sulfasalazine. In the study, both drugs safely inhibited the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in monkey and human cell lines. Both are well established and well tolerated for other human diseases and will likely be rapidly advanced into clinical trials to test whether they can prevent or treat COVID-19. The Cambridge research, which mapped a network of human proteins induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection, identified 476 key proteins most relevant in viral replication and screened approved drugs against those proteins, finding 200 drugs, 40 of which are already in COVID-19 clinical trials and another 30 of which have previously been proposed as potential candidates against the disease.A malaria vaccine candidate that pairs a shot of the live parasite that causes the disease with a dose of infection-fighting drugs showed promise in early clinical trials, researchers reported in Nature last week. The live parasite vaccine and drug combination showed 87.5 percent efficacy in a small group of healthy adult participants. The study, conducted at the National Institutes of Health, gave 44 healthy people in the United States three intravenous doses of the vaccine spaced about a month apart, followed by one of two antimalarial drugs—pyrimethamine or chloroquine—two or three days after the shot to weaken and eliminate the parasite. A phase 2 clinical trial of the vaccine is now underway in Mali, a malaria-endemic country.The CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine appears to be safe and induce an antibody response among children and adolescents ages 3 to 17, according to phase 1/2 clinical trial data. The vaccine, manufactured by Sinovac, has recently been approved for emergency use in China for children over the age of 3. The trial results evaluated the vaccine among healthy children and adolescents in Zanhuang County, China, finding 96 percent of participants who received two doses of the vaccine developed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. Most adverse reactions were mild or moderate, with pain at the injection site the most commonly reported symptom. Researchers noted that the number of participants was small and concentrated and recognized a need for larger studies in other regions, as well as for data evaluating long-term safety and immune responses.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine showed 90 percent efficacy in preventing laboratory-confirmed symptomatic infection among adults aged 18 and older, according to phase 3 trial results released last week. The vaccine was also 91 percent protective in high-risk populations, 93 percent protective against variants of concern and variants of interest, and completely protective against hospitalization and death due to COVID-19. The recombinant protein vaccine is given in two doses, three weeks apart, and can be stored at refrigerator temperatures. Novavax plans to file for authorization with several drug regulators, including the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in the third quarter and expects to be able to produce 100 million doses a month by the end of that quarter followed by 150 million per month by the end of the year. Novavax also has an agreement with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to deliver 1.1 billion doses of its vaccine, once authorized, to the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility.In new data from the UK Recovery Trial, Regeneron’s antibody cocktail reduced the chance of death among hospitalized COVID-19 patients who haven't produced their own antibody responses to the disease. The study showed REGEN-COV reduced risk of death by 20 percent among seronegative participants, or those who produced no natural antibody response, while for patients who had developed antibodies, the treatment didn't work at all. Among the seronegative group, the treatment also reduced the average hospital stay by four days and decreased the chance of a patient requiring a ventilator. REGEN-COV received emergency use authorization from the FDA late last year for patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 and recently received an expanded green light for a lower dose and delivery by subcutaneous injection. Regeneron now intends to take the new data to the FDA for expansion to use in seronegative hospitalized patients.CureVac’s two-dose mRNA COVID-19 vaccine was 47 percent effective against COVID-19 disease of any severity among participants in a 40,000-person trial, interim analysis shows. The broad diversity of variants makes it challenging to demonstrate high efficacy, according to a statement from CureVac’s chief executive—13 variants were recorded in the trial, with only a single case caused by the original SARS-CoV-2 virus. More than half of the cases were infections with variants of concern. The trial, conducted in ten countries in Latin America and Europe, will continue, and final data is expected in the coming weeks. The CureVac vaccine is of most importance to the European Union, which has preordered 225 million doses, with the option to buy 180 million more.