Becker's ASC Review

75 HEALTHCARE NEWS AstraZeneca's vaccine may not effectively protect against South Africa variant, small trial shows By Katie Adams O fficials in South Africa said Feb. 7 they are halting the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford aer a small clinical trial showed it doesn't appear to protect against mild to moderate cases from B.1.351, the variant of the novel coronavirus that is circulating in the country. e trial that prompted the country's decision to suspend the rollout of AstraZeneca's vac- cine was a small one with a median partici- pant age of 31, so it isn't reliable enough to draw any unequivocal conclusions about the vaccine's effectiveness against the South Africa variant, according to e Wall Street Journal. irty-nine participants in the trial were found to be infected with B.1.351, with 19 having received AstraZeneca's vaccine and 20 having received a placebo, Shabir Madhi, PhD, the trial's principal investigator told e Wall Street Journal. Dr. Madhi said this data suggests the vaccine has an efficacy rate of about 10 percent in protecting against mild to moderate COVID-19 cases caused by the variant, although he noted the parameters of the trial were too limited to produce statisti- cally significant data. Before the research, which has yet to be peer- reviewed, was released Feb. 7, South Africa had planned to administer its first shipment of one million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine to healthcare workers later in February. Sarah Gilbert, PhD, the University of Ox- ford's lead vaccine developer, told the BBC Feb. 7 that a modified version of the vaccine will likely be produced by fall to fight against the South Africa variant. Another small study, which has also yet to be peer-reviewed, was published Feb. 5 in e Lancet's preprint server. It said AstraZeneca's vaccine is effective in protecting against CO- VID-19 cases caused by B.1.1.7, the variant first identified in the U.K. It showed the vac- cine triggered an immune response against the U.K. variant in 75 percent of COVID-19 cases that showed symptomatic infection and about two-thirds of cases that didn't have symptoms, compared to its efficacy rate of about 84 percent of symptomatic cases and 81 percent of all cases caused by older ver- sions of the novel coronavirus. n Eli Lilly CFO resigns following probe into personal messages By Katie Adams E li Lilly said Feb. 9 its CFO, Josh Smiley, has resigned after an independent investigation found some of his personal communication with employees to be inap- propriate, CNBC reported. After learning of the allegations, the drugmaker said it im- mediately hired external counsel to perform an independent investigation. The probe revealed consensual yet inappropri- ate personal communications between Mr. Smiley and some Eli Lilly employees, according to CNBC. Eli Lilly said the communications constituted poor judgment from Mr. Smiley, but it has not disclosed how many employ- ees were involved. The drugmaker also said Mr. Smiley will be replaced by Anat Ashkenazi, who most recently served as the senior vice presi- dent, controller and CFO of its research laboratories arm. Mr. Smiley, who has worked at Eli Lilly since 1995 and became its CFO in 2018, will assist with the transition of the CFO role through July at a reduced compensation of $9,000 every two weeks, the drugmaker said. n Mark Cuban is building an $11M drug manufacturing plant in Dallas By Maia Anderson M ark Cuban's new generic drug business, the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co., is building an $11 million drug manufacturing facility in Dallas, according to the Dallas Business Journal. Construction is to begin on the 22,000-square-foot facility this month and be completed by next year, the Dallas Business Journal reported Feb. 5. The company filed for a license to build the facility Feb. 4. The billionaire investor and "Shark Tank" TV show star announced the company in January, saying it is dedicated to producing low-cost versions of high-cost generic drugs and pledged to "provide radical trans- parency in how we price our drugs." n

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