Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Cutting-Edge RNA Research Jumps To Front Of Line In Vaccine Effort
The Washington Post: Coronavirus Vaccine Research: Scientists Pursue RNA To Trigger Covid Immune Response
In the global race to beat back the coronavirus pandemic, scientists in Britain, Germany, China and the United States are pushing to develop, and possibly manufacture, millions of doses of vaccine in a completely new way. This promising — but unproven — new generation of vaccine technologies is based on deploying a tiny snip of genetic code called messenger RNA to trigger the immune system. It has never before been approved for use. But almost overnight, these cutting-edge RNA vaccine efforts have leaped forward as top candidates to fight covid-19. (Booth and Johnson, 7/5)
Reuters: Britain Nears $625 Million Sanofi/GSK COVID-19 Vaccine Deal: Report
Britain is close to a $624 million supply deal with Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline for 60 million doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, the Sunday Times reported. Clinical trials are due to start in September and Sanofi has said it expects to get approval by the first half of next year, sooner than previously anticipated. (Smout, 7/5)
The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Researchers Compete To Enroll Subjects For Vaccine Tests
Vaccine researchers are trying new tacks in an unprecedented effort to recruit the tens of thousands of healthy volunteers needed to finish testing coronavirus shots in late stages of development. Quickly lining up all the subjects for so many studies at the same time poses several challenges, creating competition among companies. (Hopkins and Loftus, 7/5)
Stat: Data Show Panic, Disorganization Dominate The Study Of Covid-19 Drugs
In a gigantic feat of scientific ambition, researchers have designed a staggering 1,200 clinical trials aimed at testing treatment and prevention strategies against Covid-19 since the start of January. But a new STAT analysis shows the effort has been marked by disorder and disorganization, with huge financial resources wasted. (Herper and Riglin, 7/6)
The Hill: Lobbying Battle Brewing Over Access To COVID-19 Vaccine
The race for a COVID-19 vaccine is setting off a different kind of competition in Washington: Who will get it first? Food suppliers argue their workers should be near the front of the line. Fifteen trade groups recently made their pitch to President Trump, citing his declaration that the food and agriculture sector is a critical component of the nation's infrastructure. Trump administration officials have signaled they will take a “tiered approach” to giving out the vaccine when it is ready and said that, depending on the results of clinical trials, high-risk individuals, people with pre-existing health conditions, and front-line health care workers will be prioritized. (Gangitano, 7/5)
San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Doctors Explain The COVID-19 Treatments They’re Using Now
There is no cure or vaccine yet for COVID-19, but Bay Area doctors now have months of experience treating the illness, using what they’ve learned from similar respiratory diseases while absorbing new research and trying out different drugs to help people heal. These front-line health professionals say the shelter-in-place orders put in place back in March bought them valuable time to learn how to treat the disease before seeing more cases. (Moench, 7/3)
In related news —
The Wall Street Journal: Chinese Research Papers Raise Doubts, Fueling Global Questions About Scientific Integrity
Internationally peer-reviewed journals published more than 100 scientific research papers from China-based authors that appear to have reused identical sets of images, raising questions about the proliferation of problematic science as institutions fast-track research during the coronavirus pandemic. The cache of 121 papers, credited to researchers from hospitals and medical universities across roughly 50 cities in China, all shared at least one image with another—a sign that many were likely produced by the same company or “paper mill,” said Elisabeth Bik, a California-based microbiologist and image-analysis expert who identified the trove. (Xiao, 7/5)
CNN: Coronavirus Pandemic Could Mean 1 Million Extra Deaths From Other Diseases, Experts Warn
As health services around the world continue to focus their resources on ending the coronavirus pandemic, they threaten to derail decades of hard-won progress in the response to HIV, TB and many other diseases. That's according to a new report by the International AIDS Society publishing this week. (Senthilingam, 7/6)
