COVID-19: Roundup 12 June

12 June 

Here is our weekly roundup on the latest research and scientific efforts against the coronavirus.

AbbVie

AbbVie, Harbour BioMed (HBM), Utrecht University (UU) and Erasmus Medical Centre (EMC) have established a collaboration to accelerate  efforts to advance the fully human, neutralizing antibody 47D11 discovered by UU, EMC and HBM.  AbbVie will be working alongside its collaborators to advance this antibody towards clinical trials.

Read more here.

Lilly

Eli Lilly recently announced that its partner Junshi Biosciences has dosed the first healthy volunteer in a Phase 1 study of the lead antibody, JS016, designed to treat and prevent covid-19. Lilly will continue to assess efficacy of JS016 as a single agent, as well as in combination with other antibody treatments against covid-19. Phase 2 studies will be initiated once results from Phase 1 show the antibody can be safely administrated.

Read more here.

Oxford Biomedica

Oxford Biomedia has entered a five year collaboration with the Vaccines Manufacturing Centre (VMIC), to  provide the UK with a strategic vaccine development and advanced manufacturing capability.

Read more here.

Novavax

Novavax recently announced that the U.S Department of Defence (DoD) has awarded them with a  contract to manufacture  their covid-19 vaccine candidate, known as NVX CoV2373. The contract includes an agreement for 10 million doses to be delivered to the DoD in 2020.

Read more here.

Illumina

Illumina received an Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the Illumina COVIDSeq™ Test, a sequencing-based covid-19 diagnostic test.

Read more here.

BioNTech

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and BioNTech have finalised a €100 million debt financing agreement to support BioNTech's BNT162 vaccine programme to prevent COVID-19 infection. This investment will allow the company to scale-up its manufacturing capacity as part of their global supply strategy.

Read more here.