Covid-19 Vaccines, Therapies – 3 August 2020

BioRender Covid-19 vaccine and therapy tracker. (BioRender.com)

3 Aug. 2020. A continuing feature on Science & Enterprise is a weekly statistical report of vaccines and therapies for Covid-19 offered by BioRender, a scientific illustration software company. BioRender, in Toronto, Ontario, develops graphics tools for life sciences, biotechnology, and other disciplines.

Over the past week, seven more therapy candidates entered clinical trials bringing that number to 259, while the number of therapies in development remained the same at 337. And as reported last week, the numbers of vaccine candidates in development and clinical trials show modest but steady growth, now up to 157 and 35 respectively.

In addition to the summary dashboard shown above, the BioRender Covid-19 vaccine and therapy page provides details of the vaccines and therapies, as well as an activity feed showing news updates on these drugs.

A front-page story this morning in the New York Times tells about political pressures on U.S. health agencies to take short cuts to approve a Covid-19 vaccine before the 2020 election in November. These short cuts include bypassing FDA’s advisory committees that review evidence and recommend actions by the agency, an almost unprecedented step for a drug of this magnitude. The implications are immense, including for trust in other vaccines and therapies needing FDA approval.

More from Science & Enterprise:

• Two Covid-19 Vaccines Show Preclinical Immune Responses
• Trial Testing Lymphoma Drug to Treat Covid-19
• Covid-19 Vaccines, Therapies – 27 July 2020
• Synthetic Protein Designed to Boost Covid-19 Vaccines
• Oxford Covid-19 Vaccine Trial Invokes Immune Responses

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