BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product Development

Feb. 2 COVID Quick Takes: CanSino vaccine clears interim Phase III hurdle; plus updates from Novartis, CureVac, Lilly, Evotec and Oxford- Imperial College London

February 2, 2021 11:26 PM UTC

An independent data monitoring committee has recommended that CanSino Biologics Inc. (HKEX:6185; Shanghai:688185) continue a Phase III trial of its COVID-19 vaccine after single dose Ad5-nCoV met its prespecified interim primary safety and efficacy criteria and did not result in any serious adverse events. More than 40,000 volunteers 18 years and over are in the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, adaptive trial, which has 78 sites in five countries. The primary endpoint is preventing virologically confirmed symptomatic COVID-19, regardless of severity, 28 days to 52 weeks after vaccination.

Novartis to pitch in on Comirnaty manufacturing  
Next quarter Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) will begin conducting fill-finish activities in Switzerland to produce Comirnaty from BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE). The Swiss pharma, which is discussing similar deals with other vaccine developers, expects to begin delivery of the finished product in 3Q21...