Roche - Roche’s COVID-19 antibody test receives FDA Emergency Use Authorization and is available in markets accepting the CE mark

Roche - Roche’s COVID-19 antibody test receives FDA Emergency Use Authorization and is available in markets accepting the CE mark

CORONAVIRUS RESEARCH IN BRIEF

• Phase I/II trials have started in the United States for COVID-19 vaccine candidates from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and BioNTech, a German biotechnology company. The drugs are a group of four related RNA-based formulations.
  Reference: Pfizer press release
  
• Roche’s COVID-19 antibody test has been granted emergency-use authorization by the FDA. The company says that the test has 100% sensitivity (correctly identifying those who have had the disease) and over 99.8% specificity (correctly identifying those who have not).
  Reference: Roche press release
  
• A study of more than 7,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Hubei, China, revealed that type 2 diabetes significantly increases the risk of all-cause mortality.
  Reference: Cell Metabolism paper
  
• An antibody cloned from a llama inhibited the SARS-CoV-2 virus in cell cultures. The llama has been immunized with a protein from a different coronavirus, SARS-CoV-1.
  Reference: Cell paper

Read more in Nature Medicine’s weekly round-up of the latest coronavirus research.