Vaccines

Results reported today on the JAMA website show no benefit from repurposing the SSRI as a COVID-19 treatment drug. Earlier results suggesting that fluvoxamine might be an effective treatment were from trials conducted earlier in the pandemic when vaccines weren’t available and other variants were circulating.

Research shows that patients with multiple sclerosis who have been treated with drugs that target CD20 B cells drugs, such as Ocrevus and Rituxan, tend to have a weak antibody response. But cellular immunity and T cells are activated. The results suggest a need for vaccines that boost T cells.

VBI Vaccines’s PreHevbrio [Hepatitis B Vaccine (Recombinant)], the only approved 3-antigen hepatitis B vaccine for adults, is now commercially available in the U.S. after approval by the FDA late last year.