Pharma News

Immunotherapies called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells use genetically engineered versions of a patients own immune cells to fight cancer. These treatments have energized cancer care, especially for people with certain types of blood cancers. Now, scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centers Sloan Kettering Institute (SKI) have developed new CAR T cells that can do something their predecessors cannot make drugs.

Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) said that BBV152 (COVAXIN), its whole-virion inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate, has proven to be safe, well-tolerated, and immunogenic in paediatric subjects in phase 2 and 3 study.

Bharat Biotech had conducted phase 2/3, open-label, and multicenter studies to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity COVAXIN in healthy children and adolescents in the 2-18 age group.

Sickle cell anemia (SCA) is a common genetic disorder affecting red blood cells in the Indian population. The disease is passed on to children with the faulty beta globin gene from their parents, although the parents themselves do not get the disease. About 0.4% of the population suffers from the disease, while 10% are carriers of the disease, giving rise to new SCA patients.

CD4+ T cells are important parts of the immune system and play a key role in defending the body against pathogens. As they possess a great variety of defense mechanisms against HIV in their resting state, they are infected only very rarely – but these few infected cells form a latent reservoir for HIV in the body that currently cannot be reached by antiviral drugs. Consequently, the virus can spread again from there after activation of the CD4+ T cells.

Scientists at Scripps Research, University of Chicago and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified a new Achilles heel of influenza virus, making progress in the quest for a universal flu vaccine. Antibodies against a long-ignored section of the virus, which the team dubbed the anchor, have the potential to recognize a broad variety of flu strains, even as the virus mutates from year to year, they reported Dec. 23, 2021 in the journal Nature.

Sun Pharma announced that one of its wholly owned subsidiaries has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to manufacture and market a generic version of MSD (a trade name of Merck & Co., Inc, Kenilworth, NJ, USA) and Ridgebacks molnupiravir under the brand name Molxvir in India. Earlier this year, Sun Pharma had signed a nonexclusive voluntary licensing agreement with MSD to manufacture and supply a generic version of molnupiravir in over 100 low and middle-income countries (LMICs) including India.

Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday, 28 December, announced that the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had approved two more COVID-19 vaccines and COVID-19 pill for restricted emergency use in India.

Two COVID-19 vaccines which are approved for restricted emergency use in India named Corbevax and Covovax. And Covid-19 pill from merck Molnupiravir is amongst the approved antiviral for COVID-19 in India.

Roche announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for its COVID-19 At-Home Test. The test uses a simple anterior nasal swab sample that can be conveniently self-collected and self-tested by individuals aged 14 years and older, and by an adult for children aged 2-13 years old. The test is able to produce accurate, reliable and quick results in as few as 20 minutes for SARS-CoV-2 and all known variants of concern, including Omicron.