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Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. On Wednesday, Moderna released preliminary results on its updated COVID-19 vaccine booster targeting omicron showing a significantly stronger immune response against the variant than the existing vaccine. The results come from a clinical trial among 814 volunteers testing a booster dose that combines the original vaccine with one that specifically targets omicron. The updated booster shot followed three earlier doses of Moderna’s vaccine. Among individuals with no evidence of prior COVID-19 infection, the new combination produced 1.75 times the level of neutralizing antibodies against omicron as the existing vaccine did alone. While the updated booster is promising against the omicron variant, some experts noted the evolving virus continues to lead to new variants and subvariants, potentially outpacing the ability to modify vaccines. US Food and Drug Administration advisers are set to meet June 28 to discuss which vaccine formulation would work best as a booster in the fall.The World Health Organization (WHO) published new guidelines last week for the treatment of people coinfected with visceral leishmaniasis and HIV, recommending better treatments based on studies conducted by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Médecins Sans Frontières, and partners in Ethiopia and India. In the Indian study, the new recommended treatment—a combination of injectable liposomal amphotericin B and oral miltefosine—demonstrated 96 percent efficacy after 210 days, compared to 88 percent for the current standard treatment. In the Ethiopian study, the new treatment demonstrated 88 percent efficacy after 58 days, compared to 55 percent for the standard treatment. The new regimen also reduces the use of injectable drugs and shortens the duration of treatment. Researchers plan to continue efforts to develop an even better treatment that will be completely oral, safe, and efficacious.The first participants have been vaccinated in a phase 3 study of an influenza vaccine developed by Moderna based on mRNA technology used in its COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine, mRNA-1010, encodes for hemagglutinin glycoproteins of the four influenza strains recommended by WHO for the prevention of influenza. mRNA-1010 is the first of several influenza vaccine candidates intended to improve upon traditional vaccines, according to Moderna, by inducing broad, robust immune responses and employing the flexibility and speed of the mRNA platform manufacturing process. The trial will enroll around 6,000 adults in the southern hemisphere to evaluate the safety and immunological efficacy of the vaccine in comparison to a licensed seasonal flu vaccine. The company plans to run a confirmatory efficacy study for the vaccine as early as the 2022-23 northern hemisphere flu season.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy appears to decrease newborns’ risk of infection with the virus, according to study results published Wednesday. The study, conducted in Norway, tracked 9,739 babies whose mothers received a second or third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna while pregnant and 11,904 babies whose mothers were not vaccinated before or during pregnancy. COVID-19 infection was rare overall among the newborns, but risk of a positive PCR test during the first four months of life was 71 percent lower when the delta variant was dominant and 33 percent lower when omicron was dominant in babies whose mothers were vaccinated during pregnancy compared to babies whose mothers were unvaccinated. The findings could be in part a result of antibodies acquired from breastfeeding, according to a lead researcher, or due to vaccinated mothers being less likely to get COVID-19 and infect their infants.A team of researchers based at the University of Melbourne has discovered a new compound that could offer effective treatment against drug-resistant malaria. The compound, ML901, inhibits the malaria parasite by attacking the protein synthesis machinery from the inside and causing it to self-destruct, effectively making the parasite the agent of its own demise. During studies in both human blood cultures and an animal model, ML901 was able to kill malaria parasites that resisted currently used drugs and showed rapid and prolonged action. Based on the findings, the research team is now prepared to pursue the development of new antimalarial drug candidates.Individuals with HIV were able to achieve a lengthy period of virus suppression without antiretroviral therapy (ART) after receiving infusions of two broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs), according to research conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and partners. The research, published in Nature last week, indicates combination bNAb therapy can be highly effective in suppressing HIV in the absence of ART for extended periods, provided that antibody-resistant virus is not already present when individuals begin treatment. The authors suggest that infrequent infusions of combination bNAbs could offer a future alternative to daily ART for people living with HIV, though larger studies are needed to confirm the findings.