For the first time, one of the many COVID-19 vaccines in development has protected an animal, rhesus macaques, from infection by the new coronavirus, scientists report. The vaccine, an old-fashioned formulation consisting of a chemically inactivated version of the virus, produced no obvious side effects in the monkeys, and its human trial is about to begin.

Researchers from Sinovac Biotech, a privately held Beijing-based company, gave two different doses of their COVID-19 vaccine t...

Company Signs Agreement with Emergent BioSolutions in the U.S. As Part of its InvestmentFirst in Series of Anticipated Strategic Collaborations Designed to Further the Company’s Goal of Ensuring Global Supply of a Safe and Effective Vaccine for COVID-19
Johnson & Johnson (the Company) (NYSE: JNJ) on 23rd April 2020 announced a collaboration between the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson and Emergent BioSolutions, Inc. to support the manufacturing of its lead inve...

A Phase I/II clinical trial for BioNTech’s BNT162 vaccine programme to prevent COVID-19 infection has been granted approval in Germany.BioNTech SE, have announced today that the German regulatory authority, the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, has approved the Phase I/II clinical trial for the company’s BNT162 vaccine programme to prevent COVID-19 infection. 


BioNTech and Pfizer are jointly developing BNT162. The trial is the first clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate to start in G...

Germany gave the green light for human trials of potential coronavirus vaccines developed by German biotech company BioNTech, which is racing teams in Germany, the U.S. and China to develop an agent that will stop the pandemic.

The trial, only the fourth worldwide of a vaccine targeting the virus, will be initially conducted on 200 healthy people, with more subjects, including some at higher risk from the disease, to be included in a second stage, German vaccines regulator the Paul...

A drug called auranofin, approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, effectively inhibits severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in laboratory conditions, as described in a new study by Georgia State University researchers.

Auranofin is a chemical compound that contains gold particles. Therefore it is also known as a gold-salt compound. Such gold-containing drugs have known anti-inflammatory properties, and this specific triethyl phosphine can reduce cyt...

The number of people officially identified as infected with coronavirus in Italy has fallen for the first time since the country's outbreak began, authorities have said.




As of Monday, there were 108,237 people either being treated in hospital or recovering at home, 20 fewer than the previous day.

Authorities say the small but symbolic drop is a "positive development".

Italy's lockdown continues until 3 May but some businesses have reopened.

They include...

The drug giant Novartis said Monday it would conduct a 450-person study to determine if hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug touted by many pundits and President Trump, can effectively treat Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.




The study will be a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study, the medical gold standard in which patients will be assigned one of three options: hydroxychloroquine, the combination of hydroxychloroquine and the antibiot...

The diagnostics startup Curative has received an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its novel test to determine COVID-19 infection.




The company says that its tests have already been used by the City of Los Angeles since late March and have tested over 53,000 city residents.




Curative’s tests use an oral-fluid sample collected by having the subject cough to produce sputum, which release the virus from deep in the lungs...

A key portion of a coronavirus protein could form the basis of a safe and effective vaccine.

Coronavirus particles bristle with spiny ‘spike proteins’. A portion of the spike called the receptor-binding domain recognizes and attaches to a molecule found on the surface of many human cells, allowing the viral particle to gain entry into those cells.

Hyeryun Choe and Michael Farzan at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, and their colleagues immunized rats with f...

Swiss drugmaker Roche aims by next month to offer blood tests to identify those who had been infected with the coronavirus, potentially helping inform locked-down nations of who might have some immunity and be able to resume work or contact with the public. 

The Basel-based company said on Friday it wants to make the antibody test available by early May in countries that accept European CE regulatory standards, and is seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration emergency authorization fo...

Covid-19 patients who are getting an experimental drug called remdesivir have been recovering quickly, with most going home in days, STAT News reported Thursday after it obtained a video of a conversation about the trial.
The patients taking part in a clinical trial of the drug have all had severe respiratory symptoms and fever, but were able to leave the hospital after less than a week of treatment, STAT quoted the doctor leading the trial as saying."The best news is that most of our ...

The US Food and Drug Administration has authorized a saliva test for "emergency use" for diagnosing Covid-19. Rutgers University, where the test was developed in collaboration with other groups, announced the FDA authorization on Tuesday after formally receiving it over the weekend.
Using saliva to diagnose novel coronavirus infections could expand testing capacities across the United States. So far testing for Covid-19 has usually involved nose or throat swabs.
"It means we no long...