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Why I Got the Measles Vaccine at Age 63
It’s full-on spring here in Middle Tennessee, and the world is suddenly blooming with infants. There’s a new baby in my family and three more in my small neighborhood alone. All winter, the babies were tucked safely away at home, but now the sidewalks and the parks and the malls have filled up with strollers.
My first child was born during flu season, too, and I well remember the stern admonitions to keep him home till infections waned. But that was 1992. There was no reason for his pediatrician to warn me that I needed to keep him away from anyone who wasn’t vaccinated against other deadly infectious diseases. Before the internet deluded people into believing that an online search was commensurate with a medical degree, vaccination rates were high enough in this country to provide de facto herd immunity.
By the time my last child was born in 1998, the whole conversation had changed. That year, a long since discredited study published in The Lancet, a medical journal, claimed a link between autism and the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella. Suddenly parents were turning themselves inside out in an effort to calculate what constitutes a reasonable risk to take with a deeply loved child.
Vaxart Lays off 10% of Staff After HHS Unexpectedly Demands Halt to COVID Vaccine Trial
Vaxart has laid off 10% of its staff after the U.S. government unexpectedly ordered the biotech stop work on a trial of its COVID-19 vaccine pill.
The South San Francisco-based company completed enrollment of an initial tranche of 400 patients in the study in November. The trial has been testing Vaxart’s oral vaccine candidate against an approved mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in adults previously immunized against COVID-19 infection.
The trial was being funded by up to $456 million that Vaxart was awarded under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Project NextGen initiative to accelerate the development of new COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics.
A Late-Stage Tuberculosis Vaccine Is Making Its Way Through Clinical Trials
Monday, March 24, marks World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, and TB incidence rates continue to pose a significant global health challenge. According to the World Health Organization, 10.8 million people contracted TB worldwide in 2023 — an increase from 10.6 million in 2021. Additionally, the most recent numbers show TB resulted in 1.25 million deaths in 2023.
The Gates Medical Research Institute (Gates MRI) has been developing a TB vaccine to address this global public health issue. The M72/AS01E TB vaccine candidate contains the M72 recombinant fusion protein, which is derived from 2 Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens (Mtb32A and Mtb39A), combined with GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK’s) proprietary Adjuvant System AS01E. The Gates MRI, a nonprofit organization and subsidiary of the Gates Foundation, is sponsoring the trial, supported by funding from the Gates Foundation and Wellcome. GSK provides technical assistance and supplies the adjuvant component of the vaccine.
This month marks one year since the launch of the phase 3 clinical trial. Over the past year, trial sites have been established at 54 locations across five countries: Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, and Zambia. If the vaccine is shown to be well-tolerated and effective in the ongoing trial, the M72/AS01E could potentially become the first vaccine to help prevent pulmonary TB in adolescents and adults — and the first new TB vaccine in over a century.
Gavi Terminates COVID Vaccine Deal With Clover, Demands $224M Repayment
Last year, Novavax reached a settlement with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, after the international partnership demanded repayment following the termination of an advance purchase agreement for COVID-19 vaccines. Thirteen months later, Gavi may be on its way to a similar skirmish with China’s Clover Biopharmaceuticals after discontinuing another purchase agreement surrounding COVID-19 shots.
In a regulatory filing, the Shanghai-based company said that Gavi has sent notice of the termination of their vaccine deal and is demanding that the company return an advance payment of $224 million.
“The Company rejects such claim for a repayment, believing it is without merit based on the terms of the Advance Purchase Agreement, and will defend itself vigorously,” Clover wrote, adding that it was not aware of any associated legal claims. Gavi did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Novo Nordisk’s Next-Gen Obesity Drug CagriSema Had Investors Excited. Now They’re Not so Sure
Novo Nordisk’s hopes of heralding a new era of obesity treatment with its CagriSema drug have been called into question after a series of trial results sent shares falling.
Headline results from a REDEFINE-2 late-stage trial released earlier this month showed that Novo’s next-generation CagriSema helped obese or overweight adult patients with type 2 diabetes lose 15.7% of their weight over 68 weeks, compared with 3.1% with placebo. This was below the high-teens percentage of weigh loss previously forecast.
A prior late-stage trial published in December showed the drug helped obese or overweight patients with one or more comorbidities, but not type-2 diabetes, lower their weight by 22.7% after 68 weeks, also below the 25% expected. Both results wiped significant value from Novo’s share price as investors’ hopes of finding a superior alternative to the company’s existing Wegovy injection and rival Eli Lily’s Zepbound, both GLP-1 medications, were dashed.
The once darling stock is now down around 50% from its 2024 highs.
“Sentiment toward these guys is as negative as it’s ever been,” Emily Field, head of European pharmaceuticals research at Barclays, told CNBC over the phone Wednesday.
Novo Nordisk Offers Cheaper Wegovy for All Cash-Paying Patients at Retail Pharmacy
Novo Nordisk has quickly expanded its discounted Wegovy program, now offering all eligible cash-paying customers its popular weight-loss med at $499 per month.
Novo had only launched the cheaper Wegovy option earlier this month originally through its own NovoCare Pharmacy and at that time indicated an expansion to traditional retail channels “in the near future.”
Now, less than three weeks later, all cash-paying patients can purchase any Wegovy injection doses — from 0.25mg to 2.4mg — at their local pharmacies for $499 for a 28-day supply, Novo said Monday. The new price tag marks a further cut from Novo’s previous policy that offered self-pay patients Wegovy at a cost of $650 per month.
Patients enrolled in government-funded healthcare programs are not eligible for this offer. Most patients with insurance that covers Wegovy may pay as little as $0 to $25 a month out of pocket for the drug, according to Novo.
‘Low-Sugar’ Vaccine Can Provide Broad Immunity Against Coronavirus Variants
Sugar coatings aren’t only for candies; they also help viruses, like the ones that cause COVID-19, hide from their hosts’ immune system. Now, researchers have developed a universal vaccine that targets coronaviruses and the sugars that they use as cover.
As demonstrated in animal studies, the vaccine removed sugar molecules from an area of a coronavirus spike protein that rarely mutates and created effective and plentiful antibodies to inactivate the virus. Chi-Huey Wong, a chemistry professor at Scripps Research, presented results from his team’s studies at the ACS Spring 2025 Digital Meeting.
Wong says that the premise of this research is simple: it’s an effective vaccine that targets more than one coronavirus at a time, which will allow individuals to receive a single shot for protection against multiple infectious agents. An ongoing Phase I clinical trial led by Rock Biotherapeutics has completed enrollment and dosing and will be discussed by Wong during his ACS Spring 2025 Digital Meeting presentation.
Electronic Nudges to Get Flu Shot May Unwittingly Lower COVID Vaccination in Older Adults
Electronic reminders to encourage older adults in Denmark to get vaccinated against flu may have unintentionally lowered uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine slightly, but not enough to hamper clinical outcomes, according to a research letter published in JAMA Network Open.
Researchers in Denmark and the U.S. and vaccine manufacturer Sanofi evaluated rates of COVID-19 vaccination, confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, and infection-related hospitalization among more than 964,000 participants in the 2022-23 Northern Hemisphere respiratory virus season.
The study was a secondary analysis of the NUDGE-FLU (Nationwide Utilization of Danish Government Electronic Letter System for Increasing Influenza Vaccine Uptake) trial, which found that electronic letters emphasizing the potential cardiovascular benefits of flu vaccination and repeated messaging increased flu vaccination rates by about 1 percentage point.
