• SAB Biotherapeutics issues a press release to announce that the Data and Safety Monitoring Board recommended that its polyclonal antibody, SAB-185, advance to phase III trials for the treatment of non-hospitalized patients with mild to moderate Covid-19. Source
• Novavax and Serum Institute of India issue a press release announcing that they have submitted an application to WHO for emergency use listing of NVX-CoV2373, Novavax’ s protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The joint submission to WHO is based on the companies’ previous regulatory submission to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). Source
• Daily COVID-19 deaths hit an all-time high of 828 in Russia, where less than half of those eligible have had at least one coronavirus vaccine dose. Source
• Oxfam reports that the official number of coronavirus cases in Yemen has tripled in the last month, while deaths have risen five-fold. The actual numbers of each are likely to be far higher, because testing and hospital beds are in short supply. Less than one percent of the population have received a dose of coronavirus vaccine. “Covid has made life even worse for people across the country,” said Abdulwasea Mohammed, Oxfam’s policy and advocacy lead for Yemen. Source
• Relying on data from three unpublished trials and the UK Recovery study, a WHO panel endorses monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19 patients at the greatest risk of being hospitalized, or for inpatients who are not producing their own antibodies (in whom it lowers the likelihood of being put on a ventilator or dying). But the panel noted that for lower-risk patients and those with mild symptoms, “any benefits of this antibody treatment are unlikely to be meaningful” and urged them avoid seeking it “in order not to exacerbate health inequity and limited availability of the therapy.” WHO pressed Regeneron and Roche, who produce the therapy, to lower its price (of $2,100 per dose), and increase its availability, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Source