In the news this week, Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J’s) COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Europe halted following blood clot concerns in the U.S. In other news, a biopharma partnership aims to expedite drug development in immunology, and research reveals substantial public funding for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. 

RESEARCH REVEALS 97% OF FUNDING FOR OXFORD COVID-19 WAS TAXPAYERS AND CHARITABLE SUPPORT – According to a recent research paper, the development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was funded at least 97% by the public or charitable trusts including the Wellcome Trust. The paper in question details how “less than 2% of the identified funding came from private industry”. Despite waiting to be peer reviewed, the research team have declared that their data supported the truth that “public investment and international collaboration gave us the Covid-19 vaccines”.

J&J URGED TO CLARIFY CANCELLED DEPLOYMENT OF COVID-19 VACCINE IN EUROPE- Despite aiming to deliver 55 million doses to the EU by the end of June, J&J have temporarily suspended COVID-19 vaccine rollout in europe. The European Commission is now seeking “urgent clarification” from J&J. The suspension of J&J’s vaccine in Europe comes after blood clot concerns in the US, which the European Medicines Agency are currently reviewing. 

TWIST BIOSCIENCE PARTNERSHIP HOPES TO ACCELERATE ANTIBODY-BASED DRUG DISCOVERY – Biopharma Twist Bioscience partnered with Pure Biologics to optimise the discovery of antibody candidates for immunoncological targets. The biopharma division of Twist Bioscience has granted access for Pure Biologics to “select synthetic antibody phage display libraries”. The collaboration is hoping to support the potential of highly selective, potent antibodies in future cancer treatment.

R&D
Promising findings in identification of genetic site in susceptibility of breast cancer 

Manufacturing
UK drug discovery company licenses agreement with Sanofi to develop and commercialise inflammatory drug 

Clinical
Immunotherapy combination therapy shows potential for cancer treatment in clinical trial

That’s all for now. See you next week!

Charlotte Di Salvo, Junior Medical Writer
Proventa International