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Can Biotech Sustain the Changes of the Last Year?

06Jun
Green KeyPharma

The COVID pandemic has changed the biotech industry in a positive way, demonstrating it can act quickly and decisively to develop vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

“We have seen the transformative power of science,” said Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath, PhD, president and CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).

She, and other speakers presenting in advance of last week’s virtual Biotech Showcase, predicted the impact of the pandemic on the industry will be long-lasting.

An account of the presentation on The Science Advisory Board website pointed to the “massive pivot of biotechnology companies to pursue infectious disease research.” Though not all the companies will achieve funding or success, McMurry-Heath said the pandemic created opportunities to pursue new classes of therapeutics and novel areas of research.

“If companies are innovative and are willing to reinvent their science, there is hope for even more transformative solutions in the future,” the article says.

However, sustaining the transformation and the speed of biotech innovation is challenged by efforts to control healthcare costs, said speakers at a second advance session of the Biotech Showcase.

“Prescription drug prices in the U.S. continually rank among the highest in the world, and it’s no secret that the biotech industry relies heavily on the U.S. market to fund research and development,” the article about the session reports.

The panel of speakers agreed the goal of the federal government and the pharmaceutical industry should be to make innovative, but affordable drugs. Complicating that is the business model. “With high R&D costs, companies (and investors) must have a way to recoup costs, years after the product goes to market,” the article explains.

There are some alternatives, said Dr. Julie Gerberding, Merck EVP and chief patient officer and former head of the CDC. She cited the Department of Defense model, which is built on a public-private partnership incentivizing productivity and innovation. Another is the way the Department of Health and Human Services partnered with the private sector to combat COVID-19.

“With future pandemics a near certainty,” the article reported, “it seems critical that the government should invest more innovation to help avoid or mitigate anticipated crises, [Gerberding] believes.”

“We are all part of the problem and the solution,” Gerberding said. “We have to apply ourselves to find contemporary solutions. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Photo by National Cancer Institute

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Biomedical sensors long ago moved out of the hospital and into an assortment of recreational exercise devices monitoring heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and other vital signs.

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Whether medical or recreational activity trackers, these sensors require some sort of carrier — think wristbands or EKG electrode patches — which limits their effectiveness and can make them uncomfortable when worn for extended periods. They can also be hard to place and often have poor signal quality.

Now, right out of science fiction, engineers at Penn State, China’s Harbin Institute of Technology and other Chinese institutions have come up with a way to print the sensors and their electronics directly on human skin.

Up to now, the only way to bond nanoparticles together to create flexible electronics was through a process requiring temperatures hotter than the hottest home oven. The new process uses common materials that allow the particles to bond at room temperature.

The resulting sensor is flexible, smooth and durable enough to remain on the skin until peeled off with hot water. The devices can then be recycled and reused.

Lead researcher, Penn State Engineering Professor Huanyu Cheng, explained that the bonding process uses polyvinyl alcohol paste — the main ingredient in peelable face masks — and calcium carbonate — the key ingredient of eggshells.

The sensors, he said, “Are capable of precisely and continuously capturing temperature, humidity, blood oxygen levels and heart performance signals.”

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What’s the Difference Between the COVID Vaccines?

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What’s the Difference Between the COVID Vaccines?

With the approval last month of the Moderna vaccine by the Food and Drug Administration, we now have two COVID-19 vaccines available. Two more – one from Johnson & Johnson the other from AstraZeneca – are on the way and could be approved as soon as February.

Healthcare workers, residents of nursing facilities and some first responders have already received the Pfizer vaccine, the first one approved by the FDA. Moderna has begun shipping its vaccine with the first of the 25 million initial doses administered last month.

People eager to be immunized have inundated doctors’ offices and clinics asking when the vaccine will be available. The best answer is soon.

Which one, though, will you receive? And does it make any difference?

The answer to the first question is whichever vaccine can be obtained the quickest or, in some cases, whichever your health plan recommends. It really doesn’t make any difference to you.

Both vaccines require two separate doses to reach maximum effectiveness 21 days apart for Pfizer and 28 days for the Moderna version. Both protect about equally well. The FDA data shows Pfizer is 95% effective after both doses. Moderna is 94.1%.

Unlike most other vaccines, these two vaccines use pieces of protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus to prompt the body to create antibodies. Conventional vaccines, like the annual flu shot, are manufactured from viruses typically grown in chicken eggs. These chicken grown viruses are then killed or weakened to become vaccines.

The COVID vaccines employ messenger RNA (mRNA), a newer technology. These vaccines “teach” the body to replicate the little bit of the CoV-2 protein, which, in turn, creates an immune response causing the body to make the antibodies that provide the protection against the virus.

The most significant difference between the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccines is how they must be stored. Both can survive for a few days in standard refrigeration. For longer periods, the less stable Pfizer vaccine must be kept in ultra-low temperatures below -94 F. That makes shipping and storing Pfizer’s vaccine somewhat more complicated, especially outside urban areas where the low temperature refrigeration is not easily available.

“At the end of the day, these two vaccines are pretty similar,” Dr. Thomas Russo, professor and chief of infectious disease at the State University of New York, tells Health. “Grab it while you can.”

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