COVID-19 Vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna The three products whose trials were halted are not vaccines but, rather, antibodies that treat patients who already have COVID-19. With regard to the COVID-19 vaccines we believe we have encouraging news from Pfizer/BioNTech’s and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines. The Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine  Pfizer (PFE) Chairman and CEO, Albert Bourla, stated that the mRNA vaccine developed together with BioNTech (BNTX) will …

Bristol-Myers Squibb Increased activity being observed at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) is aimed at further empowering the firm's various franchises. It all started with the firm’s attempt to empower its oncology franchise with the creation and approval of its checkpoint protein inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab) - a programmed Death-1 (PD-1) inhibitor. This antibody has been the most successful attempt . . . This content is for paid …

News from Cassava Sciences, Moderna and Sorrento Therapeutics  Cassava Sciences  Cassava Sciences (SAVA) announced that clinical results of its Phase 2b study of sumifilam have been selected as a late-breaking oral presentation by the 13th international conference on Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD). What is CTAD? CTAD is a prestigious annual conference focused on Alzheimer’s . . . This content is for paid subscribers. …

Sorrento Therapeutics Preclinical Data of Neutralizing Antibodies Against SARS-CoV-2 In preclinical studies, both STI-1499 and STI-2020 demonstrated potent neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 virus isolates, including the emerging Spike D614G variant virus. Both STI-1499 and STI-2020 demonstrated protective activities against SARS-CoV-2 infection in Syrian golden hamsters. At day 5, STI-2020 at 500 µg reduced virus load in hamster lungs to undetectable levels in 100% of animals …

Johnson & Johnson ENSEMBLE Trial for Its COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) announced the launch of its large-scale, pivotal, multi-country Phase 3 trial, ENSEMBLE, for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, JNJ-78436735. The initiation of the ENSEMBLE trial follows positive interim results from Phase 1 . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

Prohost Letter 442 The Whole World Against the Blind SARS-CoV-2 Virus Investors have no doubt profited from the developers of COVID-19 vaccines which include: Moderna (MRNA), Novavax (

Crispr Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals CTX001 Granted PRIME Designation by the EMA CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (

Eli Lilly and AbCellera Collaboration Result LY-C0V555  A lot of discoveries, followed by thorough experimentation beyond the vaccines, are taking place in the biotechnology and large biopharmaceutical companies to defeat COVID-19. The most recently discovered product by AbCellera, which was developed by Eli Lilly (LLY), is LY-CoV555 - a potent, neutralizing IgG1 monoclonal antibody (mAb), directed . . . This content is for paid subscribers. …

Gilead Sciences News Is Not Just Gossip Real news, not just gossip, is spreading today about Gilead Sciences (GILD) nearing a deal to acquire the biotech firm Immunomedics (IMMU) for $20 billion. Immunomedics current market value is around $10 billion which means that Gilead is buying it at double its value. The deal could be announced on Monday, if not sooner, if the talks go …

Inovio COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Will be Manufactured by Thermo Fisher Scientific Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) joins other contract development and manufacturing organizations in Inovio's global manufacturing consortium enabling Inovio (

Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline Have COVID-19 Vaccines Advancing in Clinical Trial Sanofi (SNY) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) started Phase 1/2 clinical trial for their adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine candidate developed by both firms uses the same recombinant protein-based technology as one of Sanofi’s seasonal influenza vaccines, with GSK’s established pandemic adjuvant technology. The Phase 1/2 clinical trial is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled trial. It is …

CDC Is Asking States to Prepare for COVID-19 Vaccines The U.S. Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked the 50 states’ public health officials to be ready to distribute potential COVID-19 vaccines to high-risk people, healthcare workers and others as soon as late October, as showed in a document yesterday. The New York Times (NYT) has also reported today that the CDC has …

Moderna Inc Late August Announcements  On August 28, 2020 Moderna Inc (MRNA) issued a press release confirming that the Company is engaged in discussions with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan (MHLW) to potentially purchase 40 million or more doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273. Under the terms of this arrangement the . . . This content is for paid subscribers. …

Moderna Presented Interim Clinical Data about mRNA-1273 for COVID-19 Moderna (MRNA) presented new Interim Clinical Data about . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

Sorrento Therapeutics Announcement Sorrento Therapeutics (SRNE) announced that it believes it has uncovered fraudulent attempts to manipulate the Company’s stock.  In a press release . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

A Predictive COVID-19 Test? COVID-19 infected people are not all affected to the same degree with regards to the severity of the disease complications. There is no doubt that a test that can predict which patients will be severely affected and which will not might save a lot of lives, money and unnecessary time spent in crowded hospitals.    Monopar Therapeutics in the NEWS  Monopar …

Inovio Inovio’s COVID-19 Vaccine INO-4800 Accomplished the Following: Durable antibody and T cell responses in rhesus macaques for 4 months. Long-term protection in non-human primates challenged with SARS-CoV-2 virus 13     weeks from vaccination. No other vaccine has demonstrated it. Reduced viral loads and faster viral clearance in macaques’ lungs and nasal passages as a result of a good Memory T and B cell …

Edesa Biotech Filed an IND for EB05 Edesa Biotech (EDSA), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has filed an investigational new drug (IND) application with the U.S. FDA for the initiation of a Phase 2/3 clinical study of its investigational drug EB05. Edesa has recently received expedited approval to begin the Phase 2/3 . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or …

SARS-CoV-2 Virus Vaccines Moderna On Monday Moderna (MRNA) started its Phase 3 clinical trial on 30,000 people with its product mRNA-1273. Separately, in a press release Moderna announced a preclinical study evaluating its product mRNA-1273 has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine. This study . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

Beyond the firms that are speeding towards bringing prophylactic vaccines against the COVID-19 infection into the clinic we have to consider the other firms that have been negatively affected by the virus pandemic; we expect them to rebound and surge when the virus loses its ability to kill. We decided to start with gene therapy companies that we believe have suffered from the delays of …