Covid-19 roundup: Alnylam, Vir quietly deprioritize Covid-19 drug; Data suggest AstraZeneca's vaccine is only 10.4% effective against new variant
Vir Biotechnology’s biggest Covid-19 effort has been their monoclonal antibody, a bid they say has since proven effective, but it isn’t their only effort.
Last year, the infectious disease biotech signed a deal with Alnylam to co-develop an inhalable siRNA drug that would slice up the viruses inside a patient’s lungs. It would be in the clinic around January, the partners said.
That never happened. The calendar turned without word, and at some point in the past few weeks, Vir removed the candidate from their pipeline online. A spokesperson for Alnylam said that they had seen “some evidence of efficacy” in the lab, but not enough to bring it into the clinic. They offered no timeline for starting a trial.
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