COVID-19

The National Institutes of Health launched and is opening enrollment for phase 2 clinical trials that will evaluate at least four potential treatments for long COVID, with additional clinical trials to test at least seven more treatments expected in the coming months. Treatments will include drugs, biologics, medical devices and other therapies. The trials are designed to evaluate multiple treatments simultaneously to identify more swiftly those that are effective.

People who contract COVID-19 but never develop symptoms the so-called super dodgers may have a genetic ace up their sleeve. They’re more than twice as likely as those who become symptomatic to carry a specific gene variation that helps them obliterate the virus, according to a new study led by UC San Francisco researchers. 

Novavax, Inc a global company advancing protein-based vaccines with its novel Matrix-M adjuvant, has been granted full Marketing Authorization (MA) by the European Commission in the European Union (EU) for Nuvaxovid  (NVX-CoV2373). This decision follows positive opinion for a full MA from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency. The vaccine is now fully authorized for use as a primary series in individuals aged 12 and older and as a booster dose in adults aged 18 and older for the prevention of COVID-19.

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has announced that the Omicron-specific mRNA-based Booster vaccine developed using the indigenous platform technology by Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. and supported under the Mission COVID Suraksha, implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), has got a nod from the office of the Drug Control General of India (DCGI) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).

The National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), New Delhi, is one of the research institution of Indian Council of Medical Research under Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, established in 1977 as Malaria Research Centre, which was renamed as National Institute of Malaria Research in November 2005. NIMR building  The primary task of the Institute is to find short term as well as long-term solutions to the problems of malaria through basic, applied and operational field research.

People with HIV have impaired immune responses to some pathogens and immunizations, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, they often experienced severe symptoms if infected with SARS‐CoV‐2.

“To our knowledge, this is the first prospective study to report comprehensive cardiac investigations and imaging in both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients after COVID-19 vaccination,” said the study’s senior author Kate Hanneman, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor in the Department of Medical Imaging and director of cardiac imaging research at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada.

Bharat Biotech International Limited (BB1L), a global leader in vaccine innovation and developer of vaccines for infectious diseases, today announced that iNCOVACC* (BBV154), is scheduled to be introduced in the country' as a booster dose shortly. Earlier this month, Bharat Biotech received approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) for the use of heterologous booster doses of iNCOVACC*.

New research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine speaks to the benefits of a COVID-19 booster.

The new findings shed light on how mRNA boosters – both Pfizer and Moderna – affect the durability of our antibodies to COVID-19. A booster, the researchers report, made for longer-lasting antibodies for all recipients, even those who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection.