VACCINE DEVELOPMENT

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• The development journey for dengue vaccine Qdenga stretches back 60 years: Gary Dubin

  Over the past 11 years under Takeda's leadership, the programme has involved 19 clinical trials, encompassing a total of 28000 participants. Notably, one pivotal safety and efficacy study enrolled over 20,000 children aged 4 to 16 and included long-term follow-up. The Lancet recently published the long-term follow-up results for Qdenga. The results showed strong efficacy against both confirmed dengue and, crucially, hospitalised dengue. Over four and a half years, the overall efficacy was 84.1 per cent, regardless of prior dengue exposure.

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• Study finds how mRNA used to target Alzheimer's disease

  The Florey is now recognised as a major leader in the field of mRNA thanks to new research that was published today in Brain Communications. Dr Rebecca Nisbet is leading the technology in this new direction.

  

• Moderna ties up with Immatics to boost cancer vaccine development

  The deal is the latest in Moderna's push to expand beyond COVID as demand for the shots falls dramatically, and develop a vaccine for cancer, a dream that scientists have chased for decades with little success. Moderna is already developing a cancer vaccine with Merck, which was shown to cut the risk of recurrence or death by 44 per cent in patients with deadly skin cancer melanoma, in a mid-stage trial. It also has vaccines under development for flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), among others.

  

• India played key role in drugs manufacturing, vaccine development during Covid pandemic: WHO chief scientist

  The third G20 Health Working Group meeting is being held in Hyderabad from June 4 to 6. It focuses on three priorities in the health track. One of the priorities is health emergency prevention, preparedness and response with a focus on antimicrobial resistance and the One Health framework.

  

• India's vaccine market to reach Rs 252 billion valuation by 2025: Jitendra Singh

  The world is increasingly realising India's superlative capacities in preventive healthcare and the country is now in the process of developing several vaccines, Singh, the minister of state for science and technology, said during a tour of the London Science Museum. He said recently, the first nasal COVID vaccine was successfully manufactured and added that a vaccine related to the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) has helped in the prevention of cervical cancer.

  

• Serum Institute to double investment in Biocon's unit to $300 million

  Serum Institute of Life Sciences is a unit of the Serum Institute of India, the world's biggest vaccine maker. Under new terms of the alliance, it would pump in $150 million after converting a loan to Biocon Pharma Ltd into equity in Biocon Biologics Ltd, the company said.

  

• China to promote vaccine development, new medicines

  The world's second-largest economy will also continue to increase the vaccination rate among elderly, and promote the expansion and upgrade of critical care resources, China's state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said in a separate report.

  

• Take F1 route to accelerate vaccine: CEPI CEO Dr Richard Hatchett

  Delivering a plenary talk on day one of BioAsia 2023, Dr Hatchett pointed out that like Formula 1 races successfully slashed pitstop time for race cars by 97% from about a minute in 1950 to just 2 seconds in 2021, vaccine development process too can be significantly accelerated.

  

• Ocugen announces positive Phase 2/3 study results of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, COVAXIN

  This study enrolled 419 US adult participants that were randomised 1:1 to receive two doses of COVAXIN or placebo, 28 days apart. Blinded safety results and preliminary unblinded immunogenicity results are available through day 56, one month following the second vaccination. The top-line data from the immuno-bridging and broadening study will be critical to support Ocugen’s future plans for the development of COVAXIN in the US.

  

• Urgent need to develop second-generation vaccines for COVID-19: Parliament

  The parliamentary panel called upon the ministry to share the data on quality, safety and production of protective antibodies, and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines in the public domain. It emphasized that the government must incentivise multi-disciplinary research and efforts towards enhancing the research infrastructure in the country.

  

• How prepared is India for future epidemics? Experts discuss readiness at THSTI meet

  The goal of the meeting is to develop a roadmap for accelerating concept, design, delivery of vaccine development for future pandemic. Various sessions covered in the meeting include accelerating vaccine development, academic research and development preparedness and industry readiness.