ExeVir, a Belgian clinical-stage company working on antiviral therapies, announced that data from its Covid-19 antibody XVR01 shows in vitro neutralisation activity against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, including the Gamma and Delta variants. Additionally, the Flanders Agency for Innovation & Entrepreneurship has offered a grant funding of $3.5m to the company to fast-track the clinical development of the unique antibody XVR011. XVR011 is a single domain-based anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody that is found to be safe and stable, with broad neutralising and manufacturing capabilities.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund, and Serum Institute of India (SII), have entered a collaboration to begin producing the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in India. SII is considered the world’s largest vaccine producer by volume and has manufactured more than 500 million Covid-19 vaccine doses so far. The technology transfer for vaccine development has already begun, and the cultivation process has also started following approval from the Drug Controller General of India. The parties are expected to produce over 300 million doses of the vaccine in India each year, with the first batch expected in September 2021.
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The government of Vietnam will be offering a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for people already vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine eight to 12 weeks ahead. In its initial stages of mass inoculation, the Vietnamese government has inoculated less than 300,000 people so far. The country has until now been administering the AstraZeneca vaccine, but received a delivery of 97,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine last week. Several countries, such as Spain, Canada and South Korea, have already approved dose-mixing due to rare fatal blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
