Author: Biotech Express

Malaria is still a serious problem in rural and tribal dominated areas of India. India reported an estimated 0.33 million cases, with almost equal proportions of P. falciparum and P. vivax in 2019 [1]. The tribal community represents 8.6% of the country’s total population which contributed to 46% of total malaria cases and 47% malarial deaths in the country [2]. The utilization of health services is poor among them and they have their orthodox health beliefs. Person infected with malaria initially approaches the traditional healer and unlicensed medical practitioner (UMP) that delays in the correct malaria diagnosis and treatment that…

Senator Rand Paul who have been constantly criticizing Fauci’s statements about COVID-19 and advocating for the life and liberty of people tweeted a reference to an article which shows that natural immunity indeed has an important role to play in this pandemic. From the beginning of the March 2020 lockdowns for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the subject of natural immunity (also called post-infection immunity) has been neglected. Once the vaccination became widely available, what began with near silence at the beginning turned nearly into a complete blackout of the topic. Even now, there is an absence of open discussion, presumably in…

A group of researchers at Washington State University has received four expressions of concern for papers whose findings underpin a publicly traded company founded by two of the most senior authors on the articles. The studies, all of which appeared in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, came from the labs of Joseph Harding, a medical chemist at Washington State, and his colleague Jay Wright. Published between 2011 and 2014, the four articles report on a molecule called angiotensin IV, work which Harding and Wright leveraged to spin-off Athira, a Seattle-based biotech firm developing treatments for conditions including Alzheimer’s…

The Federal Government of Nigeria has granted environmental approval for evaluation and open cultivation of TELA Maize, a new maize variety genetically modified to tolerate moderate drought and resist the fall armyworm and stem borer. This development now places Nigeria one step closer to commercializing the biotech maize and becoming the second African county after South Africa to do so. The approval was contained in a Certificate issued to the country’s Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) whose researchers developed the variety. It was issued by the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), the federal government agency mandated to regulate genetically modified…

“After detailed deliberation, the committee recommended for grant of market authorization of the vaccine for the age group of 2 to 18 years for restricted use in emergency situation,” the subject expert panel said in a statement. The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on Covid-19 has granted emergency use approval to Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for children in the 2-18 years age group. Bharat Biotech had completed Phase-2 and Phase-3 trials of Covaxin on children below 18 years of age in September and submitted the trial data to the Drugs and Comptroller General of India (DCGI) at the start of this month.…

The greater number of deaths amongst those with mental health conditions and intellectual disabilities has been amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic, a study based on more than 160,000 patients has revealed. The study was published in the run up to World Mental Health Day on 10 October 2021 which this year has the theme ‘Mental Health in an Unequal World’. Deaths from COVID-19 among those with learning disabilities were nine times higher than the general population during the first lockdown period, according to the study, and for those with eating disorders almost five times higher. For those with personality disorders…

India’s Bharat Biotech will be producing part of the world’s only malaria vaccine that has been developed by Pharma major GSK, and was recently approved by WHO (World Health Organisation). However, it may take a couple of years before the vaccine is launched in the market for use. In January, this year, Hyderabad-based vaccine major announced that it entered a product transfer partnership with the pharma major GSK for its malaria vaccine, RTS, S/AS01E1. GSK will retain the production of the adjuvant of the vaccine (AS01E) and will supply it to Bharat Biotech. As part of this partnership, GSK would…

Italy’s National Health Institute reported that efficacy remained stable seven months after the second mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. They evaluated data up to August 29 from more than 29 million people who had received two doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. They found that effectiveness against infection after seven months was still 89% in the general population and at six months 96% against hospitalization, and 99% against death. This is markedly different from a study run by Pfizer and published on October 4 in the journal The Lancet. In that study, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine infection prevention levels dropped from…

India will reopen to tourism from October 15, the government said, after more than a year of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. Foreign nationals will be able to apply for a visa for the first time since March 2020, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government imposed a strict lockdown in response to the pandemic. “After considering various inputs, the MHA (home ministry) has decided to begin granting fresh Tourist Visas for foreigners coming to India through chartered flights with effect from October 15, 2021,” the home ministry said in a statement on Thursday. It added that foreigners traveling to…

Pfizer scientists agreed that naturally acquired immunity from COVID-19 is better than getting vaccinations in a recently shown undercover video released by Project Veritas. Project Veritas is a non-profit journalism group founded by James O’Keefe in 2010 with the goal of “investigating and exposing corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud and other misconduct in both public and private institutions.” In a 10-minute video released, three Pfizer officials, identified as Nick Karl, Chris Croce and Rahul Khandke, shared that being naturally immune (after one acquires the virus) is better “at that point” than a vaccine. They also said that their company demands…