Anna Kovacevich

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.The first technology transfer hub for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines will be established in South Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced last week. The hub will assist in scaling production of and access to doses across the African continent by providing training on mRNA technologies for manufacturers from low- and middle-income countries and licensing them for local production. The hub is still in the process of securing agreements with manufacturers of mRNA vaccines, the technology of which is potentially easier to scale than alternatives and could be faster and easier to adapt for COVID-19 variants of concern. If knowledge of the way to produce an existing mRNA COVID-19 vaccine is transferred to the new hub in South Africa, doses could be produced at the site in the next 9 to 12 months, according to WHO.Scientists at the University of Oxford will evaluate Ivermectin in a new clinical trial to prevent hospitalization among people with COVID-19 symptoms. Ivermectin, most commonly used to treat parasitic infections, has been promoted for use against COVID-19 in several regions despite a current lack of clinical data to support its use. There have been early, “promising” results from small and observational studies, but it would be “premature” to recommend Ivermectin for COVID-19, according to a researcher from the upcoming trial. The Oxford team said they selected Ivermectin to be included in the trial because it was readily available globally and known to be relatively safe.The US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization to a COVID-19 antibody test that uses mouth swabs, rather than blood samples, to detect the presence of IgA, IgG, and IgM antibodies. The rapid, saliva-based test, called CovAb, delivers a result within 15 minutes and does not require any additional hardware or instruments. The authorization allows the diagnostic to be used at the point of care among adults and children. In clinical trials, CovAb demonstrated a false-negative rate of less than 3 percent and a false-positive rate of nearly 1 percent when administered at least 15 days after the onset of symptoms, when the body’s antibody response reaches higher levels.

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.

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. Leaders of G7 countries committed this weekend to sharing at least 870 million COVID-19 vaccine doses with countries around the world. More than half of the doses will come from the United States, which the Biden administration announced earlier in the week would buy 500 million Pfizer doses, 200 million of which will be distributed by the end of this year followed by 300 million by next June, all through the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility. The United Kingdom pledged to donate 100 million doses, the first 5 million of which will be shared in the coming weeks. France and Germany will each share at least 30 million doses. The announcement comes as inequities in vaccine supply around the world have become more pronounced, and G7 leaders have faced increased pressure to outline global vaccine-sharing plans.The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson appears to be effective against leading virus variants, according to a new study published in Nature last week that looked at immune responses in the blood of vaccinated individuals. While data did show a reduction in neutralizing antibodies to the Beta and Gamma variants, researchers also noted that there are several other types of immune responses, including binding antibodies, FC functional antibodies, and T-cell responses. T-cell responses, which are critical in keeping an infection from spreading, were not reduced to the Beta, Alpha, or Gamma variants, according to the research. Studies have shown similar results with the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. Researchers are continuing to evaluate vaccine-induced immune responses against variants, including how long the T-cell response lasts.The use of Wolbachia-infected mosquitos reduced cases of dengue fever by 77 percent in a clinical trial conducted in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, new data shows. The findings also showed an 86 percent reduction in hospitalizations due to dengue fever. The trial, conducted by the World Mosquito Program, used mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria, which reduces virus replication inside mosquitoes, limiting their likelihood of passing on dengue infection. Wolbachia can also alter the fertility of their hosts to ensure they are passed on to the next generation of mosquitoes, providing continued protection against dengue infection. The trial will be expanded across the whole city and surrounding areas, with the aim of eradicating dengue in the region.

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. An experimental oral antiviral drug showed promise as a potential treatment for COVID-19 after demonstrating an ability to prevent the virus from replicating, according to study results from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The drug, TEMPOL, was tested in an experiment of cell cultures with live viruses and was able to impair an enzyme the virus needs to make copies of itself inside human cells, which could limit the severity of the disease. An oral drug to prevent virus replication would be an important tool, as additional effective and accessible COVID-19 treatments are still needed, according to the NIH statement. NIH researchers said they plan to conduct additional preliminary studies and will seek opportunities to evaluate the drug in a clinical study.The World Health Organization (WHO) approved the Sinovac-CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use on Tuesday after evaluating its safety, efficacy, and quality. Other COVID-19 vaccines that have been authorized by WHO include those developed by Sinopharm, Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca. The emergency use paves the way for countries around the world to approve and import the vaccine for distribution quickly, according to the WHO press release, in addition to being a prerequisite for use by the COVAX global vaccine-sharing facility. WHO also noted that the easy storage requirements of the vaccine make it suitable for use in low-resource settings.The COVAX advance market commitment (AMC) initiative raised US$2.4 billion to fund COVID-19 vaccines for low- and middle-income countries, in addition to 54 million vaccine donations, during a COVAX AMC virtual summit on Wednesday. This brings the total pledged to the COVAX AMC to $9.6 billion. The summit, hosted by the government of Japan and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, brought in donations from nearly 40 governments, the private sector, and foundations that will be used to secure 1.8 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines for AMC-participating countries. The vaccines will be delivered in 2021 and early 2022 and will cover close to 30 percent of the adult population against COVID-19 in the 91 participating countries. 

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. Last week, UNICEF signed an agreement with Human Vaccine, a subsidiary of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, for supply of up to 220 million doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine. Procurement of the doses will be contingent on the vaccine receiving emergency use listing from the World Health Organization (WHO) and an advance purchase agreement with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, for the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility. The organizations leading COVAX also made an announcement last week renewing the call for funding and vaccine sharing, urging countries to share at least 1 billion doses in 2021. COVAX has so far delivered more than 70 million doses to 126 countries and economies since February, but it will face a shortfall of 190 million doses by the end of June, according to the statement.The US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized a new monoclonal antibody therapy for patients ages 12 and older with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk for infection. Sotrovimab, developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Vir Biotechnology, reduced risk of hospitalization or death due to COVID-19 by 85 percent in a study of 583 volunteers who had begun experiencing symptoms within the previous five days. It was also shown in laboratory tests to be able to neutralize the virus variants first identified in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, California, New York, and India. The US government has not announced plans to purchase the drug, but the companies expect the drug to become available in the United States in the coming weeks, according to the GSK news release.Two COVID-19 vaccines made by Sinopharm appear safe and effective, according to results published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The report indicated that the two vaccines, one developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and the other by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, are 73 and 78 percent effective, based on a trial involving approximately 40,380 participants. Follow-up data is continuing to be collected at additional study sites in Egypt and Jordan. The numbers are consistent with results Sinopharm had previously reported in interim analyses. WHO cleared the Beijing Institute of Biological Products’ vaccine for emergency use in early May, and both vaccines have already been distributed and administered globally.