The California Biotechnology Foundation is committed to keeping you up to date about COVID-19 testing, treatment and prevention advancements. The following resources track what progress has been made as of October 16, 2020. Notable advancements include:

• Sanofi and Translate Bio are moving into phase 2 trials of their COVID-19 mRNA vaccine after positive data results.
• Pfizer received approval from regulators to expand a trial to include children as young as 12, becoming the first major drugmaker to open a COVID-19 vaccine trial to kids.
• Takeda is moving into stage 3 trials of its plasma therapy drug and aims to enroll 500 patients.

Recent News:

• NIH launches COVID-19 test of J&J, Bristol Myers and AbbVie anti-inflammatory drugs
  FiercePharma – October 16, 2020
  The phase 3 study will examine Johnson & Johnson’s popular TNF blocker Remicade, Bristol Myers Squibb’s arthritis med Orencia and an experimental drug from AbbVie called ceniciviroc, the NIH said. The goal is to see whether these therapies can be repurposed to control potentially life-threatening immune overreactions in moderate to severe COVID-19 patients.
• COVID-19 mRNA vaccine candidate from Sanofi and Translate moves into phase 2 trials
  FiercePharma – October 16, 2020
  Sanofi and its partner Translate Bio have also been working on a vaccine that uses mRNA to prompt an immune response—and now they have data that they believe provide strong backing for the phase 1/2 trial expected to start this quarter.
• A Look At Why Johnson & Johnson Paused COVID-19 Vaccine Trial
  NPR – October 13, 2020 
  Johnson & Johnson put all its COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials on pause after one of the patients enrolled came down with an unexplained illness. Dr. Naor Bar-Zeev at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health says a pause is pretty normal for a clinical trial.
• Ex-CDC director: Pauses to COVID-19 drug trials give ‘reassurance’ that corners aren’t being cut
  CNBC – October 13, 2020 
  The recent pauses to clinical trials examining a potential COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutic due to safety concerns should not cause the American public to worry, Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNBC.
• With flu season ahead, GenMark launches a single test for COVID-19, plus 20 other respiratory ailments
  San Diego Union-Tribune – October 13, 2020 
  GenMark Diagnostics has received regulatory approval for a combination lab test that can detect COVID-19 along with 20 other common respiratory ailments from a single test.
• Takeda-led alliance starts scaling up production of COVID-19 plasma therapy as phase 3 kicks off: report
  FiercePharma – October 13, 2020 
  Another potential COVID-19 treatment has started late-stage testing, but in one respect, it’s different from the rest: It’s made by concentrating blood samples from recovered patients, making manufacturing a potential bottleneck.
• AstraZeneca receives $486M in U.S. funding to advance COVID-19 antibody treatment
  Philadelphia Business Journal – October 12, 2020
  The U.S. government is providing roughly $486 million to AstraZeneca to accelerate the company’s experimental COVID-19 therapy.The funds will be used to advance two phase-III clinical trials.
• The Race for a Super-Antibody Against COVID-19
  New York Times – October 12, 2020 
  Even as vaccines are hailed as our best hope against COVID-19, dozens of scientific groups are working on an alternate defense: monoclonal antibodies. Ideally, antibodies infused early in the course of infection — or even before exposure, as a preventive — may provide swift immunity.
• Pfizer will start testing its COVID-19 vaccine on children as young as 12, a crucial step to bringing the shot to more people
  Business Insider – October 12, 2020 
  Pfizer is setting plans to make its COVID-19 vaccine available to more groups of people. It received approval from regulators to expand a trial of the shot to include children as young as 12, becoming the first major drugmaker to open a COVID-19 vaccine trial to kids.
• Lab-Made ‘Miniproteins’ Could Block the COVID-19 from Infecting Cells
  Scientific American – October 12, 2020 
  The University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design has designed a synthetic peptide that binds to the infamous “spike” protein on the surface of the COVID-19 virus particle and block the virus from binding to the ACE-2 receptors on human cells, functioning much like an antibody produced by an infected person’s immune system.
• Inhaled Vaccines Aim to Fight COVID-19 at Its Point of Attack
  Bloomberg – October 10, 2020 
  The COVID-19 vaccines closest to the finish line are designed to be injected into the arm. Researchers are looking at whether they can get better protection from inoculations that fight the virus at its point of attack — the nose and mouth.
• Eli Lilly’s Olumiant pares COVID-19 patients’ recovery time down to 7 days as an add-on to remdesivir
  FiercePharma – October 9, 2020 
  Eli Lilly’s drug, Olumiant, added to Gilead Sciences’ antiviral remdesivir cut COVID-19 patients’ time to recovery by 12.5%—from eight days to seven days—over remdesivir alone and improved the odds of clinical improvement by 30% after 15 days of treatment, according to follow-up data from a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases study.