Light-activated CRISPR technology edits genes more precisely and faster than the more standard chemical methods, and enables “super-fast” DNA repair, according to research from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines global business unit of Sanofi, and Translate Bio (NASDAQ: TBIO), a clinical-stage messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics company, have agreed to expand their existing 2018 collaboration and license agreement to develop mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases.

Many epidemiologists believe that the initial COVID-19 infection rate was undercounted due to testing issues, asymptomatic and alternatively symptomatic individuals, and a failure to identify early cases.

Now, a new study from Penn State estimates that the number of early COVID-19 cases in the U.S. may have been more than 80 times greater and doubled nearly twice as fast as originally believed.

Novartis has made the decision to stop and discontinue its sponsored HCQ clinical trial for COVID-19 due to acute enrollment challenges that have made trial completion infeasible. The recruitment challenge facing our HCQ trial has made it unlikely that the clinical team will be able to collect meaningful data in a reasonable timeframe to determine the effectiveness of HCQ in treating patients with COVID-19.

7 - 8 October 2020, London, United Kingdom.
The global wearable devices market size is expected to reach a value of $62.82 billion USD by 2025 with time dependent delivery, improved patient experience and adherence and large volume administration with minimal injection pain and being key factors driving the market.

In an open letter from the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, Daniel O’Day reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had given the company approval to begin clinical trials of an inhaled version of the drug.

As companies scramble to develop a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a team of husband and wife researchers have found that the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine can reduce the symptoms of COVID-19.

With phase III trials underway and Fast Track designation from the FDA, “It’s, conservatively, at least one year ahead of everyone else’s,” John Temperato, president and CEO, told BioSpace.

Ridgeback Therapeutics will launch two mid-stage programs assessing the efficacy of its antiviral candidate EIDD-2801 as a treatment for COVID-19.

It was a busy week for clinical trial announcements. Here’s a look.

Wrapping up June and ahead of the July 4 holiday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a busy two-week period coming up for drug approvals. Here’s a look.

The TACTIC-E trial will investigate the safety and efficacy of experimental therapies designed to prevent and treat life-threatening complications associated with COVID-19 in hospitalized patients who are at early stages of the disease.

Please check out the biopharma industry coronavirus (COVID-19) stories that are trending for June 22, 2020.

Merck’s investigational pneumonia vaccine, V114, hit the mark in two Phase III studies, including one involving adult HIV patients.

Sarepta Therapeutics entered into a research alliance with Codiak BioSciences to design and develop engineered exosome therapeutics for neuromuscular diseases.

Today Bayer announced the support of "The Challenge Initiative" ("TCI" hereafter) with a payment of 10 million USD. Hosted at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the initiative provides women and girls living in urban poverty in cities in Africa and Asia with family planning and reproductive health solutions.

The FDA approved a supplemental New Drug Application for Tazverik (tazemetostat) for the treatment of two distinct follicular lymphoma (FL) indications.

Finch Therapeutics reported positive topline results from PRISM3, its Phase II trial of CP101, an oral microbiome drug for the prevention of recurrent C. difficile infection.

Please check out the biopharma industry coronavirus (COVID-19) stories that are trending for June 19, 2020.

UV-C light has been used as a disinfectant against viruses and bacteria for more than 40 years. Now, researchers at Boston University and Signify (formerly Phillips) have confirmed that it also effectively eradicates the SARS-CoV-2 virus.