Refana
  • Home
  • Programs
    • AI in Medicine
    • Vaccines
    • Early Cancer Detection
  • Corporate
  • Team
  • About
  • Blog
    • News
    • COVID Industry Updates

2/28/2022

Industry Updates Volume 17

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Picture
Omicron wanes, but leaves more death in its wake
  • Over the past four weeks, the number of new Omicron infections recorded in the U.S.A. has dropped dramatically from a peak of 800K+ on 15 January to just 66K on 26 February
  • A similar pattern has been seen in the European Union, where the peak of 1.25M+ infections occurred on 28 January and has now dropped to 475K
  • Total COVID deaths in the European Union just passed 1 Million and the U.S.A. has reached 950K​
Cumulative COVID Deaths
​
  • The Appendix shows that Rest-of-World countries did not suffer Delta and Omicron surges equivalent in magnitude to the more advanced countries
  • Even their smaller Omicron surges experienced, have also reduced substantially.

Europe Re-Opens - The "All Clear"?
  • While there are other minor variants being watched by the WHO, there does not seem to be an immediate threat of another highly virulent strain of COVID
  • Europe has mostly decided to ‘re-open’, including Denmark, UK, Greece, France, Portugal, Sweden and Norway - other EU countries are likely to follow
  • However, Omicron infections are currently still growing fast in Iceland, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, New Zealand and Hong Kong
    • Note that most of these countries largely followed an ‘isolation’ or ‘Zero Covid’ approach.

Israel as a Case Study - Vaccination No Longer Counts?
  • Israel was the first country to inoculate most of its population with 2 shots; also the first to insist on 3rd shot, in order to retain a digital certificate required to attend events; and the first to offer a 4th shot
  • All shots were Pfizer
  • Despite the high levels of vaccination, 3.5M of Israel's 9.5M population got COVID
    • 1.5M of them in the last 2 months
  • Israel has now ordered 5M shots of Novavax vaccine as a heterologous booster, although it is not clear if this will be deployed
  • Israel had severely restricted access for non-citizens over the past two years 
  • From 1st March 2022, it is completely reopening its borders to all, irrespective of vaccination status
    • Israel will no longer ask for proof of vaccination, but will require a PCR test before/after arrival.

Vaccine Equity - Africa 
  • The % vaccinated in Africa has reached 18%, and sufficient supplies are now available and even now exceed the logistical ability to deploy them
  • The African Union has asked for a pause in supplies this month 
  • Part of the log jam has been caused by widespread hesitancy to take a COVID vaccine
  • The debate about local strategic manufacturing goes on
    • The WHO is working with Afrigen in South African to develop a near copy of the Moderna vaccine
    • They have ambitious plans to manufacture this mRNA vaccine at 6 sites in Africa: Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia
    • However without cooperation from Moderna there are doubts whether this will progress from the Lab to successful manufacture at scale 
  • BionTech is promoting a 12 transport container ‘modular’ manufacturing facility that would be used to manufacture 40M doses/annually of the Pfizer/Biontech mRNA vaccine
    • Still in development and likely not ready for deployment until 2023.

New Vaccines
  • Novavax’s protein-based vaccine is now available for use in 170 countries, including approval by the UK regulator, and has filed for use with 10 different regulatory agencies, including the U.S.A. 
  • Canada’s Medicago COVID protein-based vaccine - based on tobacco leaves - now approved in Canada  
  • Stephane Bancel, the CEO of Moderna, has stated that he believes the COVID Pandemic is now over, but annual boosters will be required.

Refana progress
  • Refana's Delta variant-based WIV COVID vaccine has successfully achieved its Proof of Concept (POC) objectives in our testing work at the Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute (IITRI)
    • The vaccinated transgenic mice exhibited good levels of protection
    • There was a variation from low to extremely high protection between the mice
    • The serum of the vaccinated mice successfully neutralized both the Delta and the Wuhan strains
    • As expected for a Delta specific vaccine, the effect was noticeably stronger against Delta
  • The animals have not been subject to a live challenge 
  • Refana should have the Proof of Concept report and full data tables next week
  • The Team is now exploring recently made available non-dilutive funding opportunities in both the public and private sectors that would enhance both our vaccine development and our modular manufacturing strategy
    • Recent RFPs have been released by multiple agencies
    • Refana is investigating its approaches to respond to those opportunities
    • As these opportunities further develop, we’ll share more info on them with our Investors.

Appendix

Cumulative COVID-19 Deaths
Cumulative COVID-19 Deaths

Covid Cases
Daily New Confirmed COVID-19 Cases

Cumulative COVID deaths
Daily New Confirmed COVID-19 Deaths
Back to Blog

Share

0 Comments
Details

    Categories

    All
    Industry
    Video

    Archives

    December 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020

    RSS Feed

​Practical Solutions for complex and ​urgent global medical problems

HOME     |     PROGRAMS    |    TEAM     |     ABOUT     |     NEWS
Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy
© 2023 Refana Inc
  • Home
  • Programs
    • AI in Medicine
    • Vaccines
    • Early Cancer Detection
  • Corporate
  • Team
  • About
  • Blog
    • News
    • COVID Industry Updates