A piece about Sanofi partnering with a monoclonal antibody developer to treat type 1 diabetes generated a lot of clicks. It was the top story last month.
Teplizumab has the potential to become a first-in-class and first disease-modifying therapy for type 1 diabetes. The drug candidate is an anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody that counteracts immune cells that destroy insulin-producing beta cells in type 1 diabetes.
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A story about how a P1 clinical trial evaluating intranasal delivery of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine failed to generate a strong immune response also proved of great interest to readers.
Oxford University researchers found that antigen-specific mucosal antibody responses to intranasal vaccination were detectable in a minority of participants, rarely exceeding levels seen after SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The team involved in the researchers were nevertheless encouraged by the acceptable safety profile of the vaccine: and believe their findings, alongside other licensed or candidate vaccines, can help build up a body of knowledge.
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Third in the rankings of most read stories last month was an article about Pfizer raising the price of its COVID-19 shots in the US in Q1 2023.
This price model reflects the transition from the pandemic model to normal procurement paradigms, higher distribution costs as well as a transition from multidose vials to the single-dose version of the vaccine, said the drug maker.
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Diabetes innovation is evidently high on the agenda - a story about how Novo Nordisk expects to file for regulatory approval of its once-weekly insulin icodec injection in the US, the EU and China in the first half of 2023 was the fourth highest in terms of readership traffic rankings for October.
And the Danish pharma giant says the approach represents a new treatment paradigm for type 2 diabetes: “We believe that our investigational weekly insulin icodec has the potential to offer a new standard of care in this space.”
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A piece last month on Merck's interests in cancer vaccine research also proved a ratings winner.
Merck has exercised its option to jointly develop and commercialize a personalized cancer vaccine (PVC) with Moderna following 'significant progress' made by the two companies in the field to date.
The two companies entered into a strategic collaboration for novel mRNA-based PCV with Keytruda in 2016 with Merck paying Moderna $200m to lead research and development efforts through proof of concept.
Now, Merck is exercising its option to develop a vaccine, currently in Phase 2 trials in patients with high-risk melanoma, with Moderna through to commercialization for an additional $250m. The two companies will share costs and any profits equally under this worldwide collaboration.
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