Important Innovations

  COVID Kids' Vaccine Moves Forward                            Source:  Pfizer-BioNTech COVID Vaccine 100% Effective in Initial Data From Trials Germany based BioNTech and Pfizer announced today that their COVID-19 vaccine is 100% effective in teens, according to their initial data from ongoing trials in children from 12 to 15 years old.  The companies added kids tolerate the vaccine very well.  Their vaccine has already been approved for emergency use in young people 16 year old plus and adults.  The companies, based on their new data, say that they believe it is safe and effective for kids 12 to 15 years old to receive the two shot vaccine.  Their data is being forwarded to the FDA for its review and possible approval for use in young teens to protect them from COVID.  The companies hope to start vaccinating kids before the start of the new school year in fall of 2021. Testing Ongoing For Kids of All Ages The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been shot into the arms of hundreds of mill

Germany's BioNTech & Pfizer Test COVID Vaccine for Kids                                                             Source:  Stock Image of Child & Vaccine                                                            Source:  BioNTech & Pfizer Breakthrough Medical Innovation Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech hope to be able to vaccinate children under 12 years old against COVID-19 by early 2022.  Early stage trials started in late March 2021.  The volunteers (via their parents) are as young as 6 months old.  The Pfizer BioNTech COVID vaccine for adults was the first authorized for use in the US in mid December 2020 and among the first to hit global markets in late fall 2020. In the US alone, 66 million people have received it. Shot In The Arm Only the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine is being used on 16 and 17 year old teens in the US.  Moderna's vaccine has been cleared for those 18 years and older.  No vaccine has been authorized for use on children under 16 year old in

    FDA Approves Moderna COVID Vaccine                                                                                Source:  Stock COVID image FDA Okays Australia's Home Diagnostic Test For COVID The FDA has given emergency approval to Moderna's COVID vaccine, making it the second COVID vaccine, along with Pfizer's,  available in the US.  The vaccine is 95% effective and is available to adults, while trials are expanded for teenagers. Meanwhile, the Australian diagnostic test company Ellume has scored a big win.  The FDA has approved its over the counter, at home,  COVID-19 test.  This is the first COVID-19 test approved for use at home.  Ellume Home COVID Test The system uses a nasal swab to collect data, analyze and send results to the person's smartphone. The results come within twenty minutes. The US Food and Drug Administration itself is calling this innovation from Australia a "major milestone in diagnostic testing". New At-Home COVID Technology The re

  Pfizer To Request Quick Emergency FDA Approval Source:  Pfizer COVID Vaccine Suddenly There Is Hope    Pfizer has completed its late stage trial of its COVID-19 vaccine, saying it is 95% effective.  The company adds that it is effective on older adults, who are more vulnerable, and works against both mild and severe cases of COVID.  The company has the required 2 months of safety data for regulators.  Within days, Pfizer says it will apply for emergency FDA approval to start making it available for public use.  The vaccine's efficacy rate is the highest among all current vaccine candidate now in trials.  As the Economist magazine put it "Suddenly There is Hope". "The Speed of Science" Pfizer expects that the FDA will hold a public hearing on their vaccine in December.  Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says knowing that every day matters in the fight against COVID, the company is moving at what he calls "the speed of science".  The vaccine was developed joint

  1st Pfizer/BioNTech COVID Vaccine,  Now Moderna Vaccine                                    Source: Moderna COVID Vaccine Moderna Vaccine is 94.5% Effective, Pfizer More than 90% More hope in the fight against the COVID-19 global pandemic.  Cambridge, MA based biotech Moderna reports that it has a COVID vaccine candidate that is 94.5% effective against the deadly virus .  COVID-19 has infected more than 55 million people and taken more than 1.3 million lives globally as of today.  Pfizer/Germany's BioNTech Vaccine Moderna has the second highly acclaimed vaccine candidate since Pfizer/BioNTech announced theirs a few days ago.  Pfizer claims their vaccine has a more than 90% effective rate. These vaccines have to be approved by regulatory authorities, but their results look very promising and are giving global medical experts hope of quick turnaround deployments. Dr. Anthony Fauci's Take The US's top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says that he is optimistic abou

  German Biotech BioNTech's & Pfizer's New COVID Vaccine                                                  Source:  BioNTech 1st Vaccine Against COVID that Appears Effective COVID-19 has caused more than 1 million deaths and infected 52 million people worldwide.  Finding a vaccine to protect the world against this unrelenting disease is the Holy Grail of medical research. Frankfurt, Germany based BioNTech appears to be the first to have produced a vaccine that is effective against COVID.  The company is co-developing the vaccine with Pfizer. Below Market Rate Vaccine Pricing BioNTech plans to price the vaccine, which requires two shots, at below "typical market rates".  It will also differentiate the price among countries and regions.  The company is doing so to ensure broad-based access around the world.  It is important to note that the vaccine has not yet won regulatory approvals. Efficacy Rates Based on preliminary trial data, the vaccine is 90% effective.  Wit

Surprising Enterprise to Meet Global Vaccine Need Source:  CureVac TESLA & CureVac of Germany - Could It Be a Gamechanger? Tesla, the world's top electric vehicle manufacturer, is working with a German biotech CureVac to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.  CEO Elon Musk says, as a side project, he's building RNA microfactories for CureVac and possibly for other vaccine research groups.  On Twitter, Musk has said synthetic RNA has "amazing potential" as an approach to immunizing patients against COVID-19. CureVac Credentials CureVac is one of only 18 drug companies around the world with COVID-19 vaccine candidates in clinical testing.  The company is working with so-called messenger mRNA, which deliver instructions from DNA to the body's protein makers - ribosomes.  CureVac's approach is to customize mRNA to command ribosomes to make proteins that fight specific diseases like COVID or create antibodies to fight them.  Several other drug companies incl

Human Testing on J&J Vaccine Starts in July Source:  COVID 19  New Glimmer of Hope Johnson and Johnson just announced its accelerating human trials of its potential COVID19 vaccine by months to July.  The trials will take place in the US and Belgium.  More than 1000 volunteers aged 18 to 55, plus another group over 65, will be involved. One Billion Doses J&J says it will test a placebo against the vaccine to determine the immunity results and its safety.  The company has signed an agreement with the US government to create enough manufacturing capacity to produce 1 billion doses of the vaccine through 2021.  J&J Chief Scientific Officer Paul Stoffels told Reuters:  "Based on the strength of the pre-clinical data and interactions with regulatory authorities, we've been able to further accelerate the clinical development" of the vaccine. Ten Vaccine Candidates In all, there are ten COVID vaccine candidates that have entered the human trials phase

Promising Oxford University Vaccine Source:  Gilead Sciences Successful Gilead Sciences Treatment In the war against COVID-19, some good news.  Gilead Sciences' remdesivir has shown improvement in patients taking it to treat the virus. That, according to Gilead's own study.  On top of that, testing by the National Institution of Allergy and Infectious Disease also gave the drug "positive data" results in their own testing.  This news raised hopes on Wall Street that a treatment/cure is near and that the economy may be able to open safely again.  At the start of trading, the DJIA shot up 400 points and Gilead shares were up 9.3%. Promising Vaccine Meanwhile, researchers at Oxford University in the UK say they could  have a COVID-19 vaccine ready for humans by the 4th quarter of this year. Their experimental vaccine has proven effective in protecting monkeys from the virus.  Monkeys given the vaccin

Moderna New Vaccine Goes to National Institutes of Health Source:  Novel Coronavirus Ready for Phase One Human Trials While the deadly Coronavirus continues to take its toll globally, a new vaccine offering hope for prevention is on its way to the NIH in Washington, DC.  This is the first Coronavirus vaccine going into clinical trials by the NIH.  Moderna, a biotech company specializing in vaccines & headquartered in Cambridge, MA, has invented what it calls  the mRNA-1273 vaccine to prevent the Coronavirus infection.  The NIH is going to begin Phase 1 trials for human use.  Turnaround time and availability could be within a year Overnight Share Price Lift Moderna announced that it was shipping the vaccine to the NIH last night.  The company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ.  In overnight trading, Moderna shares were up 15% on the news.  Over the past few years, the company has created more than 100 vaccines and therapies for clinical trials. Fear of the Coronav

US Researchers Find an Antibody that Blocks the Tick-Borne Disease Source:  Stock Image of Jogger and Dog In Woods 100% Effective in Lab Tests If you love the outdoors and your pets, this new medical innovation is of great importance to you.  Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have discovered what they believe is an antibody that prevents ticks from spreading Lyme disease.  Lyme is a tick borne bacterial infection that can cause neurological problems if left untreated. The symptoms can be severe.  Some of the diseases that ticks carry are characterized as severe as malaria.  The disease comes from a tick that you picked up on your socks or clothing during a jog, walk through the woods or just petting your dog or cat. Antidote Until now there has been no cure for Lyme Disease.  UMASS has developed a "vaccine" in which antibodies are injected into a human that block the release of the Lyme disease bacteria that comes from a tick bite. In l