clinical trials, disease & medicine

Many major biopharmaceutical companies are developing or acquiring drugs that target the NLRP3 inflammasome, a large intracellular complex that researchers say can spark inflammation and stoke diseases of lifestyle and aging.

Following on the success of CAR T cells used to treat cancers of the blood, researchers have launched a Phase 1 clinical trial of genetically modified macrophages to target solid tumors.

The cancer researcher and executive vice president of AstraZeneca’s oncology research and development is well known for his role in the development of pivotal breast cancer therapies.

Patients who received the drug fared better cognitively and functionally than those taking placebo, but still experienced losses in performance.

Mix-and-match shots could simplify vaccine rollout and stimulate more-robust immune responses. Ongoing clinical trials will soon give answers.

Few peer-reviewed clinical papers on the pandemic contained original data, and many of those that did had poor experimental design.

From new treatments to an investigation into the virus’s origins, here are some of the developments we can expect this year.

It’s not clear why the patients with Leber hereditary optic neuropathy, a mitochondrial disorder that causes blindness, also experienced the modest benefits in their untreated eye.

As COVID-19 therapies get emergency-use green lights, the Biden administration must organize a therapeutic review board to help identify what’s working and what’s not.

The results mark the second experimental COVID-19 vaccine to show high efficacy, but the study is not complete and the data have not been peer reviewed.

Vaccine experts say the results surpass their expectations, but the study is not complete, and the data have not been peer reviewed.

Researchers propose that an infusion of memory T cells from people who have recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infections could treat severe disease.

Recent data show that the drug bamlanivimab, also known as LY-CoV555, does not appear to help those with severe cases of COVID-19, but trials continue for milder cases.

The company voluntarily paused its studies, including one in Phase 3, after an unexplained illness in a patient.

Although scientists debate the ethics of deliberately infecting volunteers with SARS-CoV-2, plenty of consenting participants have been exposed to all sorts of pathogens in prior trials.

Eli Lilly reports a 72 percent reduction in hospitalization risk among patients who received its monoclonal antibody compared to those who received a placebo.

A randomized controlled trial on the use of convalescent plasma therapy to treat coronavirus infections—the first in the world to be completed—yields disappointing results, but some doctors are not discouraged.

A meta-analysis of seven randomized controlled trials concludes that dexamethasone and other corticosteroids reduce 28-day mortality in seriously ill patients.

After six months, patients with fast-progressing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis who had received the experimental treatment had less loss of function than those who received a placebo.