Infectious Diseases

Emerging Company Profile: US firm Peptilogics is advancing through the clinic with its lead orthopedic anti-infective drug candidate based on an AI platform that utilizes algorithms to improve peptide design.

In this week's podcast edition of Five Must-Know Things: a look at Alzheimer’s drug development; US-China decoupling irks Chinese biotech firms; seven potential blockbuster approvals in 2023; Novo Nordisk’s cardiovascular strategy; and a look at the vaccine and drug pipeline for monkeypox.

SIGA chief scientific officer Dennis Hruby spoke with Scrip about how the company is developing its drug, Tpoxx, to address the monkeypox outbreak.

After a nine-month US FDA-imposed pause, Merck is relaunching its studies of islatravir with a lower dose, while also abandoning its use in PrEP studies.

Since its emergence in the spring, the monkeypox outbreak has spawned a small but growing pipeline of drugs and vaccines, many of them repurposed smallpox products.

Nirsevimab is set to become the second RSV prophylactic on the market for infants and offers several advantages over its first-to-market competition, but Pfizer’s vaccine rival is fast approaching.

A controversial letter from two Japanese doctors' associations seemingly pressing regulators to approve Shionogi’s oral COVID-19 drug prompts a backlash from other physicians. 

The SHIELD I trial, for preventing surgical site infections, did not meet its primary and key secondary endpoints, but a subgroup analysis did, while COVID-19 may have muddled results.

Japan has approved Evusheld for both the prevention of infection in people who have not been exposed to the virus and, for the first time globally, as a treatment. The country's government will purchase 300,000 units from AZ amid global supplies that have been limited due to the surging need for the drug.

Deal Snapshot: The contract for Tembexa, which builds on an existing deal between Chimerix and Emergent BioSolutions, illustrates lucrative potential opportunities for emergency preparedness.

Pfizer’s bivalent vaccine candidate showed efficacy in RSV patients with multiple respiratory infection symptoms and may offer protection against the A and B strains of the virus.

Takeda’s dengue vaccine Qdenga has received its global first approval in Indonesia, as Qdenga, also marking the first time for the firm to market a vaccine outside Japan and potentially paving the way to wider global use of vaccines for the mosquito-borne disease following setbacks for earlier contenders.