Derek Lowe's commentary on drug discovery and the pharma industry. An editorially independent blog from the publishers of Science Translational Medicine. All content is Derek’s own, and he does not in any way speak for his employer.
With all of my posts here about vaccines and antibodies, it’s only fair that I spend some time talking about the potential toxicology problems with both of those. I remain optimistic about both categories, but it’s for sure that not all the candidates being advanced are going to make it through. So what sorts of… Read More
So let’s do a non-coronavirus post for the weekend. Over the years, I’ve sporadically reported on the (rather contentious) field of aging and its biochemical implications. Many readers will recall the results of the past few years that claim that infusion of young-animal plasma into aged animals seems to have many beneficial effects. Of… Read More
Since I did a monoclonal antibody update in the last post, here’s one on the vaccine front, where there is a lot of news – and where there are a lot of issues coming up similar to the ones with the antibodies as well. The last vaccine update post was here. What we’re seeing now… Read More
There’s a lot of interesting antibody news to catch up on, from the early science to clinical trials. A previous post on this subject is here, with links to earlier background explanations, if you would like to catch up on the area. Here, for example, is a report from a large multi-center team in China characterizing… Read More
Many chemists will by now be aware of the brief, but very loud, incident with Angewandte Chemie and a paper by Tomas Hudlicky that appeared there. Well, it didn’t appear for long – within hours, the link had disappeared. The article appears to have been an update of parts of his book “The Way of… Read More
The recent implosion of the Surgisphere data papers has been big news. It included one that purported to show no benefit (and actual harm) from hydroxychloroquine treatment, and even more harm when combined with azithromycin – but since the authors have been unable to back up the raw data on this, the paper cannot be… Read More
Most readers will have heard that this paper appeared in the NEJM late yesterday afternoon: it’s something that we haven’t had so far, an actual randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled hydroxychloroquine trial. This one was for post-exposure prophylaxis, a mode of treatment made famous by President Trump when he stated several ti… Read More
Let’s circle back to remdesivir. We already have the results of the remdesivir Phase II trial that led to its Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA. But now come the first Phase III results, and it’s safe to say that they’re not making anyone happier. The news isn’t bad, but you can’t say it’s particularly… Read More
Update, and this one needs to be at the top of the page. As you will see from the additions to this post, the entire Surgisphere story has collapsed. None of their papers can now be regarded as valid – vide infra. So we have a very strange situation with some recent publications, one that… Read More
It feels strange to be writing about biomedicine, even about a terrible pandemic, under the current circumstances. I was six years old in 1968 and was thus largely spared that year’s events, so 2020 is now the year that in which I’m most fearful about what’s happening in my country. My broad political opinions make… Read More
