COVID-19 Top News – March 26, 2020

Berkeley Lights announces the creation of the Global Emerging Pathogen Antibody Discovery Consortium (GEPAD) to address Covid-19 and other viruses (PRNewswire) - Mar 26, 2020 - "In collaboration with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, La Jolla Institute for Immunology and Emory University , viral neutralization workflows using the Berkeley Lights platform are being accelerated in response to the epidemic coronavirus....The consortium will use the Berconey Lights Beacon platform to discover antibodies using blood from patients in remission as the basis for treatment, COVID-19 being the first target."ExThera’s affinity blood filter is used to treat Covid-19 Patients - Mar 26, 2020 - "Treatment of COVID-19 with ExThera’s Seraph®100 Microbind® Affinity Blood Filter (Seraph 100) has begun in hospitals in Germany and Italy. Seraph 100 treatments of COVID-19 are also expected to begin soon in France and the USA....ExThera has received clinician interest in individual emergency use of Seraph 100 in the USA and we expect COVID-19 treatments to begin here soon, when they meet the criteria outlined in the FDA Guidance."Relief Therapeutics and NeuroRx, Inc. file FDA IND for Aviptadil to treat Covid-19-induced respiratory distress (PRNewswire) - Mar 26, 2020 - "RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding AG...filed an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application with the US FDA for a phase 2 trial of RLF-100 (Aviptadil) in the treatment of Acute and Moderate Respiratory Distress in patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus....Relief also holds a US patent for Aviptadil and proprietary manufacturing processes for its synthesis."remdesivir (GS-5734) / GileadGilead rescinds orphan status request for Covid-19 drug (pharmaphorum) - Mar 26, 2020 - "Gilead decided to rescind the request for orphan status after drug pricing campaigners accused the company of gaming US drug laws to maximise any profits made from remdesivir should it get approved....While Gilead did not acknowledge the pricing row in its brief statement saying it had rescinded the request, the company noted that orphan status also waives the need for a paediatric study plan that can take 210 days to review."FDA grants VERO Biotech expanded access emergency use for the treatment of patients with COVID-19, with the Genosyl DS, the first and only FDA-approved tankless system for the delivery of inhaled nitric oxide (PRNewswire) - Mar 26, 2020 - "VERO Biotech LLC...announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted 'expanded access emergency use' allowing its proprietary inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) delivery system, GENOSYL® DS, to immediately be used for the treatment of cardiopulmonary symptoms associated with COVID-19."Beroni Group announces submission of Emergency Use Authorization to US FDA for its COVID-19 rapid test detection kit (GlobeNewswire) - Mar 26, 2020 - "Beroni Group....announces submission for an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its IgG/IgM antibody SARS-CoV-2 rapid test detection kit."Dynavax and CEPI announce collaboration to support global effort to develop a vaccine for coronavirus (COVID-19) (GlobeNewswire, Dynavax Technologies Corporation) - Mar 26, 2020 - “Dynavax Technologies Corporation…and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) today announced a collaboration supporting the global effort to develop a vaccine to prevent the coronavirus (COVID-19). Dynavax will make the Company’s proprietary toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) agonist adjuvant, CpG 1018TM, available for the development of effective vaccines against COVID-19….CEPI and Dynavax will work together to identify and coordinate engagements with entities around the world working on COVID-19 vaccines. The focus of this collaboration is to identify programs that could benefit from combination with CPG 1018 to provide a more rapid or robust immune response.”