GSK and Sanofi COVID-19 Vaccine Produced in Insect Cells with Squalene Adjuvant

Story Highlights GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur are partnering to develop an experimental COVID-19 vaccine. The two global vaccine manufacturers are using existing recombinant DNA vaccine technology and a squalene adjuvant for their COVID-19 vaccine. Clinical trials are scheduled to begin in the second half of 2020 and, if successful, the vaccine will be available in […]
Pfizer/BioNTech Target Fall 2020 for COVID-19 Vaccine Availability

In recent weeks Inovio Pharmaceuticals of Pennsylvania and representatives of the German biotechnology firm CureVac AG and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom have announced that their experimental COVID-19 vaccines will be ready for use by September 2020. On Apr. 29, 2020, Pfizer, Inc. of New York stated in a news release that […]
Oxford Begins COVID-19 Vaccine Trials to Meet September Deadline

On Mar. 17, 2020, European Commission (EC) president Ursula von der Leyen said she was hopeful a vaccine for COVID-19 could be available this September. Her view was based on conversations she had had with managers of German biotechnology firm CureVac AG which has developed an experimental messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine that it plans to […]
Inovio COVID-19 Vaccine Uses Electricity to Drive DNA Into Body Cells

Story Highlights Inovio Pharmaceuticals has started Phase 1 testing of its experimental COVID-19 DNA vaccine in healthy volunteers. The U.S. biotech firm has already produced enough of the vaccine to support Phase 1 (immune system reactivity and safety) and Phase 2 (efficacy) testing and plans to have one million doses ready for distribution by the […]
University of Pittsburgh Researchers Use Genetically Modified Measles Vaccine to Create COVID-19 Vaccine

Vaccine developers at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Vaccine Research (CVR) have taken a part of the coronavirus involved in COVID-19 infection and attached it to a genetically modified measles vaccine that has been used for many years.1 According to CVR Director Dr. Paul Duprex, “CVR has a mandated role to respond rapidly to […]
Bill Gates Says Health Care Workers Will Be First to Get Coronavirus Vaccine

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates predicted on Mar. 18, 2020 that the first licensed coronavirus vaccines for COVID-19 will be available within 18 months and that health care workers will be among the first to get the shots. Gates co-chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which recently invested $50 million to develop a […]