ReportWire

Tag: BioNTech SE

  • Here are Wednesday’s biggest analyst calls: Tesla, Wynn, Walmart, Alphabet, Western Alliance & more

    Here are Wednesday’s biggest analyst calls: Tesla, Wynn, Walmart, Alphabet, Western Alliance & more

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  • Moderna cancer vaccine with Merck’s Keytruda delays return of deadly skin cancer

    Moderna cancer vaccine with Merck’s Keytruda delays return of deadly skin cancer

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    Moderna’s sign is seen outside of their headquarters in Cambridge, MA on March 11, 2021.

    Boston Globe | Getty Images

    An experimental mRNA vaccine developed by Moderna combined with Merck’s blockbuster immunotherapy Keytruda cut the risk of death or recurrence of the most deadly skin cancer by 44% compared Keytruda alone, U.S. researchers reported at a medical meeting on Sunday.

    The findings suggest that adding a personalized cancer vaccine based on mRNA technology to Keytruda, which revs up the immune response, could prolong the time patients have without recurrence or death, said Dr. Jeffrey Weber of the NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center, who presented the findings.

    “From a general cancer therapeutic standpoint, this is a potential major breakthrough,” Dr. Ryan Sullivan, a melanoma expert at Mass General Cancer who worked on the study, said in a statement.

    The results, presented at American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Orlando, Florida, add data details to partial findings released by the companies in December.

    The Merck/Moderna collaboration is one of several combining powerful drugs that unleash the immune system to target cancers with mRNA vaccine technology. BioNTech and Gritstone Bio are working on competing cancer vaccines based on mRNA technology.

    Moderna’s vaccine is custom-built based on an analysis of a patient’s tumors after surgical removal. The vaccines are designed to train the immune system to recognize and attack specific mutations in cancer cells.

    Merck’s Keytruda, which is approved to treat melanoma and many other cancers, belongs to a class of widely used immunotherapies known as checkpoint inhibitors designed to disable the PD-1, or programmed death 1, protein that helps cancer evade the immune system.

    The midstage trial enrolled men and women at high risk of their melanoma returning.

    Among 107 study subjects who received both the experimental vaccine, mRNA-4157/V940, and Keytruda, cancer returned in 24 subjects (22.4%) within two years of follow-up, compared with 20 out of 50 (40%) who received Keytruda alone.

    There was little difference in response rates among people whose tumors had a lot of mutations – a typical predictor of immunotherapy response – and those whose tumors did not.

    Severe side effects were similar between the two arms of the study, the scientists reported. Fatigue was the most common side effect reported by patients specifically associated with the vaccine.

    Merck said the companies are in talks with U.S. regulators about the design of a late-stage trial, which is likely needed for approval of the combination regimen.

    It could take three or four years before the results of the larger trials are known, Eliav Barr, Merck’s head of global clinical development and chief medical officer, said in an interview.

    Barr said it took Moderna about eight weeks to design a personalized mRNA vaccine for each patient.

    In the past, similar experimental cancer vaccines were developed targeting a single tumor mutation, or neoantigen.

    Moderna’s mRNA technology allowed for the inclusion of as many as 34 neoantigens, which Barr called “astonishing.”

    Currently, scientists cannot predict which single mutation is important in generating an anti-tumor response. With mRNA technology in combination with Keytruda, “we can create this shotgun approach … that can create a more potent immune response,” Barr said.

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  • Concession awards mark a reset for Macao casinos

    Concession awards mark a reset for Macao casinos

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    Macao’s government relies on casinos for over 80% of its income, with most of the population employed directly or indirectly by the casino industry.

    Dragon For Real | Moment | Getty Images

    With mandatory quarantines lifted, ferry and airline service resuming, and licenses renewed, casinos hope 2023 marks a new beginning for the world’s preeminent gambling destination, Macao.

    The Macao government awarded six companies new 10-year concessions to operate their integrated casino resorts. A concession essentially is an operating agreement with the government, which in turn, licenses the operators.

    To win the permission, the casino companies agreed to invest collectively nearly $15 billion dollars in Macao to achieve government goals of diversifying the local economy beyond gambling and encouraging international tourism.

    CNBC has also learned MGM will benefit from the allotment of 200 more gaming tables, though the award comes at the expense of competitors including Wynn’s properties, according to multiple sources.

    Las Vegas Sands and Hong Kong-based Galaxy Entertainment have the largest real estate footprints in Macao and have committed to the biggest investments.

    Sands’ agreement for a $3.75 billion dollar investment, or 30 billion MOP, will be roughly split between capital expenditures and operating expenses. Most of the investment will go toward non-gaming projects like a new conference facility and a luxury yacht experience that appeal to foreign visitors, according to a company statement.

    An executive in the company who asked not to be named characterized the financial commitment as a win, as it entails investments that likely would have been made anyway — as opposed to an operating fee forked over in exchange for a license.

    The sentiment is similar at MGM Resorts, which plans to invest its $2.1 billion commitment in three main areas: culture, entertainment and medical tourism.

    This month, Macao has seen an increase in tourism from mainland China from visitors trying to get an mRNA Covid vaccine. The BioNTech shots have not been approved in mainland China, but in Macao, a Special Administrative Region, or SAR, the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) Hospital offers vaccinations for tourists.

    Wynn Resorts‘ commitment to a $2.2 billion investment over the next decade will incorporate plans for state-of-the-art theater and restaurant experiences. It also plans to expand its sales presence around Asia and North America to boost international tourism.

    Melco Resorts and Entertainment announced the return of its House of Dancing Water extravaganza, which has been suspended since the beginning of the pandemic. It will also build an indoor water park. The company also plans to focus on medical tourism by building a clinic with MRI and other advanced imaging technology.

    Galaxy will build Macao’s first high-tech amusement park. SJM Holdings will renovate its defunct floating casino to offer non-gaming entertainment options.

    As the government works to usher in a new era, the days of junkets bringing in high rollers to the island is all but finished. Crackdowns had curtailed that segment of the gaming business, even before the pandemic began. This week, the Macao secretary of finance and the gaming enforcement agency DICJ announced they will increase monitoring and enforcement around even stricter limits.

    A rise in Covid infections around China caused November gaming revenue in Macao to fall 23% from October and plummet 99% from November 2019 pre-pandemic levels, according to government data.

    Even with the resumption of the e-visa program, where Chinese travelers can apply electronically for travel documents, and the easing of quarantine requirements, the Macao government said it anticipates gross gaming revenue, or GGR, in 2023 to mirror 2022’s GGR of roughly $16 billion, as Macao struggles with continuing Covid overhang.

    But Macao’s loss may be Singapore’s gain. Sands reported third-quarter results that showed a stunning jump in visitation and spending after Singapore lifted Covid travel restrictions.

    Fitch estimates Singapore will achieve 80% of its pre-pandemic gaming revenue in 2022, and 95% in 2023.

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  • Omicron BA.5 is declining in the U.S. as emerging variants gain ground, CDC data shows

    Omicron BA.5 is declining in the U.S. as emerging variants gain ground, CDC data shows

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    The U.S. faces at least seven different versions of Covid-19 omicron as the nation heads into winter when health officials are expecting another wave of viral infections.

    Although the omicron BA.5 variant remains dominant in the country, it is starting to lose some ground to other versions of the virus, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published on Friday.

    Omicron BA.5 has splintered into several new but related variants that include BQ.1, BQ.1.1 and BF.7. The U.K. Health Security Agency, in a report earlier this month, said these three variants are demonstrating a growth advantage over BA.5, which was the most contagious version to date.

    In the U.S., omicron BA.5 makes up about 68% of all new infections, down from about 80% at the beginning of October. BQ.1, BQ.1.1 and BF.7 are now causing about 17% of new infections combined, according to the CDC data.

    About 3% of new infections are attributable to BA.2.75. and BA.2.75.2, which are related to the omicron BA.2 variant that caused a bump in cases during the spring but was pushed out.

    Scientists at Peking University in China found that omicron BA.2.75.2 and BQ.1.1 were the most adept at evading immunity from prior BA.5 infection and several antibody drugs. The study, published earlier in October, has not been peer reviewed.

    Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid response coordinator, said earlier this week that U.S. health officials are closely monitoring these variants because they are good at evading prior immunity.

    “The reason we’re tracking them is because they either have a lot more immune invasiveness or they render many of our treatments ineffective,” Jha said. “Those are the two major things that get our attention.”

    But Jha said the new omicron boosters that the U.S. started rolling out last month should provide better protection than the first-generation vaccines against these emerging variants. The boosters target BA.5 and the emerging variants are all omicron and most descend from BA.5.

    Jha called on all eligible Americans to get the new boosters by Halloween so they will have full protection for Thanksgiving when family holiday gatherings kick into full swing.

    But the scientists at Peking University said the immune evasiveness of variants like BA.2.75.2 and BQ.1.1 could mean that the BA.5 booster shots will not provide sufficiently broad protection.

    It’s unclear how much more effective the boosters will prove in the real world. The Food and Drug Administration authorized the shots without direct human data, relying instead on clinical trials from a similar shot that was developed against the original version of omicron, BA.1.

    Pfizer and BioNTech on Thursday published the first human data from their BA.5 shots. They triggered a significant boost to the immune system against omicron BA.5 in a lab study that looked at blood samples from adults ages 18 and older, the companies said.

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