COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

New Study Published in Nature Provides Further Evidence that COVID-19 Vaccine Induced T-Cell Response Targets Known SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
Vaccines, Medical specialties, Health, COVID-19 vaccines, Clinical trials, COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa, Lineage B.1.351, Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, Vaccine, COVID-19 vaccine

The study provides further evidence that the T-cell response may contribute to protection from COVID-19.

Key Points: 
  • The study provides further evidence that the T-cell response may contribute to protection from COVID-19.
  • In the multinational phase 3 ENSEMBLE trial, participants given Johnson & Johnsons vaccine experienced similar efficacy against the B.1.351 variant.
  • Mapping exactly how the variants impact different parts of the virus can indicate if the immune response is likely to be affected.
  • The tool can be used to study the T-cell immune response for vaccine research across COVID-19 variants., mapping across >160KSARS-CoV-2-specific antigen-TCR sequence-level data.

Celltrion’s anti-COVID 19 monoclonal antibody treatment, regdanvimab (CT-P59), demonstrates neutralising effect against the South African variant (B.1.351)

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 29, 2021
Biotechnology, Infectious diseases, Health, Pharmaceutical, Clinical trials, Medical specialties, Medicine, Clinical medicine, Variants of SARS-CoV-2, 501.V2 variant, COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa, Zoonoses, Monoclonal antibody, COVID-19, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, P59

b'Celltrion Group today announced preliminary pre-clinical results for regdanvimab (CT-P59), an anti-COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment, with data demonstrating that CT-P59 has a neutralising effect against the South African variant in an in vivo model.

Key Points: 
  • b'Celltrion Group today announced preliminary pre-clinical results for regdanvimab (CT-P59), an anti-COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment, with data demonstrating that CT-P59 has a neutralising effect against the South African variant in an in vivo model.
  • The study demonstrated that CT-P59 treatment, at a clinically relevant dose, results in a significant reduction in viral load of SARS-CoV-2.
  • CT-P59 demonstrated reduction in the binding affinity against the receptor binding domain (RBD) in the three mutations (K417N, E484K and N501Y substitutions) of the South African variant.
  • In addition, CT-P59 showed a reduced susceptibility against the South African variant in a live virus and pseudo-virus assay in vitro study.

Pharmacists' Confidence in the COVID-19 Vaccines Continues to Grow

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 8, 2021
Medicine, Medical research, Health sciences, Health, Vaccine hesitancy, COVID-19 vaccine, Vaccine, COVID-19 vaccines, Clinical trials, Deployment of COVID-19 vaccines, COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

This is the fourth survey APhA has conducted since September about pharmacists' confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines.

Key Points: 
  • This is the fourth survey APhA has conducted since September about pharmacists' confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines.
  • In its January 2021 survey, 51% reported they had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
  • In the March survey, an overwhelming percentage of pharmacists (97%) said they were comfortable addressing vaccine confidence and vaccine hesitancy concerns with their patients and other individuals.
  • The margin of error for this survey is plus or minus 4.7% at the 95% confidence level.

DGAP-News: CureVac's COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate, CVnCoV, Demonstrates Protection Against SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 Variant (South African Variant) in Preclinical Challenge Study

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
SARS-CoV-2, Medical specialties, Variants of SARS-CoV-2, Medicine, COVID-19 vaccines, Clinical trials, Zoonoses, 501.V2 variant, COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa, CureVac COVID-19 vaccine, Vaccine, Middle East respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus, CVnCoV, CureVac

Consistent with available variant studies, the neutralization capacity of robust antibody titers was shown to be impacted by the B.1.351 variant compared to the original strain.

Key Points: 
  • Consistent with available variant studies, the neutralization capacity of robust antibody titers was shown to be impacted by the B.1.351 variant compared to the original strain.
  • The full manuscript of the preclinical data is available on the bioRxiv preprint server.
  • Vaccination resulted in robust antibody responses and complete protection (100% survival) against the original SARS-CoV-2 strain and also B.1.351 (variant strain first identified in South Africa) challenge infections.
  • The company entered into a collaboration agreement with Bayer in January 2021 with regards to CureVac's current vaccine candidate CVnCoV.

In Vitro Study Published in The New England Journal of Medicine Demonstrates Sera from Individuals Immunized with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Neutralize SARS-CoV-2 with South African Variant Spike Mutations

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Health sciences, Health, Articles, Zoonoses, Variants of SARS-CoV-2, 501.V2 variant, COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa, COVID-19 vaccine, Coronavirus disease, Pfizer, Virus

The current in vitro study investigated the full set of South African variant (also known as B.1.351 lineage) spike mutations.

Key Points: 
  • The current in vitro study investigated the full set of South African variant (also known as B.1.351 lineage) spike mutations.
  • One virus had the full set of spike glycoprotein mutations found in the South African variant and the other two had subsets of these mutations.
  • The viruses were tested against a panel of sera from 20 participants in the previously reported Phase 3 trial who had been immunized with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
  • Although the results indicated a reduction in neutralization of virus with all the South African variant spike glycoprotein mutations, all the sera neutralized all the viruses tested.