One of the targeted recipients, Tiba Biotech, had a $ 750,000 contract with Barda who was scheduled at the end of October 30th. The company was developing a therapeutic based on RNAI for the influence H1N1, also known as the swine influence. The RNAI is abbreviated for the interference of the EN and refers to small pieces of RNA which can close the production of specific proteins. The approach has been well studied and several RNAI -based drugs are on the market. The first was approved in 2018 for the treatment of nervous damage caused by a rare disease called hereditary amyloidosis mediated by the transitine.
The cancellation of the contract was a surprise for Tiba, who received a stop-work order on August 5 which did not refer to the wind of the vaccine development activities against Barda’s mRNA. “Our project does not involve the development of a MRNA product and is a therapeutic vaccine rather than a vaccine,” said Jasdave Chahal, Chif Scientific Officer of Tiba, via E -Mail.
Government contracts often include specific goals that contractors must reach to receive funding and move forward with their projects. Tiba says that his project has achieved his goals so far and was almost completed.
Among the deleted contracts there was also an $ 750,000 award at the University of Emory to convert an antiviral treatment based on the mRNA for influence and Covid in an inhaled and dry powder formulation. The project did not lead to the development of a vaccine. “Unfortunately, we do not have many intuitions to offer on the cancellation of the subsidies,” said the spokesman for Emory Brian Katzowitz in Wired in one and -mail.
The cuts are consistent with Kennedy’s desire to depreciate research in infectious diseases, although experts warned that the cuts could leave the United States more vulnerable to future pandemics.
Despite its downsizing of the research on the infectious disease related to ARN, administration has expressed enthusiasm for some non-crovid research involving the mRNA.
In January, shortly after the entry into office, President Trump announced a joint venture of Openai, Oracle and Softbank called Stargate to invest up to $ 500 billion for artificial intelligence infrastructures. At the time, Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, spoke of the potential for the IA of creating custom vaccines based on mRNA for cancer.
In a August 12 Op-and In the Washington Post, the director of the National Institutes of Health Jay Bhattacharya recognized MRNA’s promise. “It does not contest its potential. In the future, it could still provide discoveries in the treatment of diseases such as cancer and HHS is continuing to invest in ongoing research in oncology applications and other complex diseases,” he wrote.
Unlike his boss, Bhattacharya claims not to believe that MRNA vaccines have caused mass damage. But he says that the reason to stop the research on the vaccine against the mRNA is because the platform has lost public trust, a logic that differs from Kennedy.
However, the mRNA can be more accepted when it comes to treating very sick patients with genetic disorders.
At the beginning of this year, the FDA regulators argued in a personalized gene modification treatment for a child named KJ Muldoon with a rare and potentially lethal liver disease. Created in just six months, use the MRNA to deliver the genes to modify the gene on its liver. It was the first time that a personalized gene edit treatment was used to successfully deal with a patient.
In June, the commissioner of the FDA Marty Makary He praised the result ON His podcastBy calling “a kind of great victory for medical science” and in a Roundtable FDA Makary said that the agency will continue to facilitate the regulatory process for these types of products.
The researchers behind the personalized genius treatment plan to use the same approach for multiple patients and recently met the FDA on a clinical study proposal. “The FDA was very positive regarding the proposal and actually gave us the green light to proceed with our work,” says Kiran Musunuru, a professor of translational research at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Pediatric Hospital in Philadelphia.
The team has another meeting with the FDA in a month or two to discuss the extension of the concept of platform over a single disease or a single gene to a larger group of disorders. “We’ll see how it goes,” he says.
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