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By Peter Fimrite Scientists at Bay Area universities, laboratories, biotechnology companies and drug manufacturers are fashioning drug concoctions out of blood plasma, chimpanzee viruses and cells taken from bone marrow in the race to rid the world of COVID-19. The microbial treasure hunt is not just to find a cure — which may not be […]

The U.S. federal government said Wednesday it’s investing nearly $2.5 million in efforts to create a needle-free coronavirus vaccine. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) announced four small grants to groups trying to make either oral vaccines against coronavirus, or patches that could painlessly deliver a vaccine. “The novel routes of administration they

New vaccine delivery technologies could provide individuals with a broader range of options for immunization, including ones that are easier to use and potentially more effective than traditional vaccination with needle and syringe. With the potential for self-administration, these technologies could also expand the range of available care settings, allowing for wider coverage and ultimately

When you pull up your sleeve to get your yearly flu shot, you might feel a twinge of anxiety as a health care provider readies the needle and syringe. Maybe you find yourself looking away or taking deep breaths to steel yourself, even though it’s over in just a few seconds. So what if there

Bay Area at center of many promising treatment studiesBy Peter Fimrite and J.D. Morris The frenetic search for the miracle that will rid the world of COVID-19 is branching out in a thousand directions, and a large part of the microbial treasure hunt is going on in the Bay Area, where major progress has been

Bay Area researchers’ proximity to leading health care centers and Silicon Valley has given them a leading role in developing drugs to treat COVID-19. It could also give local companies and institutions a leg up in the global race to create a vaccine. Several have set out to create a highly effective product that can

Biopharmaceutical company Verndari Inc. announced it will begin preclinical testing in Sacramento and Davis on a potential Covid-19 vaccine that can be sent by mail to people sheltering in place. The Napa-based company does its research in labs on the campus of University of California Davis and at the UC Davis Medical Center campus in

Verndari Inc., a stage biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it will begin preclinical testing this week at UC Davis’ Mouse Biology Program to evaluate a potential vaccine and delivery system for COVID-19. Verndari’s VaxiPatch is a single-dose vaccination kit that uses a dermal patch with a metal microneedle array to deliver vaccines. The company states

Verndari’s VaxiPatch is a single-dose vaccination kit that uses a dermal patch with a metal microneedle array to deliver vaccines. The company states that the technology eliminates the need for refrigeration, facilitates high-volume, automated manufacturing of vaccines and can potentially be self-administered on the subject’s arm. “Verndari was founded to enable a rapid response to

GLIMMER OF HOPE: Scientists at UC Davis say they’ve developed a vaccine that could stop coronavirus.