COVID-19

Zydus announced that the company has started the supplies of its COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D, to the Government of India against their order from its newly commissioned state-of-the-art, Zydus Vaccine Technology Excellence Centre at the Zydus Biotech Park in Changodar, Ahmedabad. The group is also planning to make the vaccine available in the private market. ZyCoV-D is a three dose vaccine administered intradermally using the painless PharmaJet® needle free system, Tropis®, on day 0, day 28 and day 56.

Patients under immunosuppressive therapy, who do not respond to primary COVID-19 vaccination, have an increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease courses. Until now, it was not clear whether those patients at risk can benefit from an additional booster vaccination. Recent research findings from MedUni Vienna show that a third vaccination is safe and effective in those patients who were initially unable to produce antibodies after vaccination. The study was recently published in the acclaimed journal "Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases".

Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have found that four COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, J&J/Janssen, and Novavax) prompt the body to make effective, long-lasting T cells against SARS-CoV-2. These T cells can recognize SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern, including Delta and Omicron.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, and The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, have identified Phytochemicals in the petals of a Himalayan plant that could potentially be used to treat COVID-19 infections.

The findings of the research team have been recently published in the journal Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics.

Health Canada has authorized the combination of two antiviral drugs, nirmatrelvir and ritonavir (brand name PAXLOVIDTM), to treat adults with mild to moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk of progressing to serious disease, including hospitalization or death. The active ingredient nirmatrelvir in PAXLOVIDTM works by stopping the virus from replicating.

Pfizer Inc shared results from multiple studies demonstrating that the in vitro efficacy of nirmatrelvir, the active main protease (Mpro) inhibitor of PAXLOVID (nirmatrelvir [PF-07321332] tablets and ritonavir tablets), is maintained against the SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron. Taken together, these in vitro studies suggest that PAXLOVID has the potential to maintain plasma concentrations many-fold times higher than the amount required to prevent Omicron from replicating in cells.

The independent clinical trial, conducted by Locus Medicus in Athens, Greece, prospectively tested 330 patients with symptomatic and asymptomatic cases of COVID-19. For the study, staff at the clinical laboratory collected two bilateral anterior nasal swabs from each patient. Immediately after collection, one swab was tested in the lab’s standard of care CE-Mark RT-PCR test and the other swab was tested by BiologyWorks k(now). Results from the BiologyWorks k(now) molecular test were 99.1% in overall percent agreement with the results of the RT-PCR lab tests.

Researchers at Penn Medicine have discovered a new, more effective method of preventing the body’s own proteins from treating nanomedicines like foreign invaders, by covering the nanoparticles with a coating to suppress the immune response that dampens the therapy’s effectiveness.

Antiviral medicine molnupiravir which recently got approval from the CDSCO in India and is being manufactured by many pharma companies, has serious safety concerns, and thus has not been included in the national COVID-19 clinical protocol recommended by the health ministry, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director general Balram Bhargava said.

Bhargava said the COVID-19 task force has debated twice whether to include the Molnupiravir in the COVID-19 treatment protocol but decided against it because of concerns.