Is there any way that repetitive-molecular-structures type of vaccines could work against the viruses that currently have no vaccines at all, though people have tried and tried in vain - like some of the herpes viruses? I wouldn't know because I don't know what makes herpeses so resistant against vaccination.
Yes! My friends next door in NIAID's Vaccine Research Center are currently moving toward clinical trials of a ferritin-arrayed vaccine against Epstein-Barr virus (a herpesvirus that causes mononucleosis and white blood cell cancers). The preclinical testing is jaw-droppingly great. Merck recently announced their support for a copycat effort.
There has also been exciting recent progress adapting the ferritin platform to develop a universal one-and-done flu vaccine. Just now I updated the article with my thoughts on the flu effort.
"The FDA has apparently judged the evidence of the SKYCovione trials to be insufficiently extraordinary — perhaps because the trials were conducted in Korea, where the agency couldn’t micromanage their development."
I'd like some laws passed that result in some degree of international cooperation between drug regulatory agencies. If a decent regulatory regime approves of a drug, unless there are particular showstoppers with respect to the regulatory approval, it should be good enough for the FDA after a review.
Wholehearted agreement about international reciprocity! It seems like legislative low-hanging fruit. It might not even require legislation - a question I haven't yet seen any lawyers cover is whether the Supreme Court's recent stare-de-nevermind decision revoking the Chevron doctrine has suddenly opened the door to legal arguments that FDA's original charters intended for the agency to assign significant weight to regulatory decisions in other countries.
Some other low-hanging legislative fruit is the Promising Pathway Act, which is currently bottled up in committee in the Senate. It would allow people faced with life-threatening illness greater freedom to choose medicines.
Both things would be small but significant improvements - and they both have bipartisan appeal, so they seem legislatively achievable even with a divided Congress. I dream of more comprehensive solutions here:
Is there any way that repetitive-molecular-structures type of vaccines could work against the viruses that currently have no vaccines at all, though people have tried and tried in vain - like some of the herpes viruses? I wouldn't know because I don't know what makes herpeses so resistant against vaccination.
Yes! My friends next door in NIAID's Vaccine Research Center are currently moving toward clinical trials of a ferritin-arrayed vaccine against Epstein-Barr virus (a herpesvirus that causes mononucleosis and white blood cell cancers). The preclinical testing is jaw-droppingly great. Merck recently announced their support for a copycat effort.
There has also been exciting recent progress adapting the ferritin platform to develop a universal one-and-done flu vaccine. Just now I updated the article with my thoughts on the flu effort.
Great article!
"The FDA has apparently judged the evidence of the SKYCovione trials to be insufficiently extraordinary — perhaps because the trials were conducted in Korea, where the agency couldn’t micromanage their development."
I'd like some laws passed that result in some degree of international cooperation between drug regulatory agencies. If a decent regulatory regime approves of a drug, unless there are particular showstoppers with respect to the regulatory approval, it should be good enough for the FDA after a review.
Wholehearted agreement about international reciprocity! It seems like legislative low-hanging fruit. It might not even require legislation - a question I haven't yet seen any lawyers cover is whether the Supreme Court's recent stare-de-nevermind decision revoking the Chevron doctrine has suddenly opened the door to legal arguments that FDA's original charters intended for the agency to assign significant weight to regulatory decisions in other countries.
Some other low-hanging legislative fruit is the Promising Pathway Act, which is currently bottled up in committee in the Senate. It would allow people faced with life-threatening illness greater freedom to choose medicines.
Both things would be small but significant improvements - and they both have bipartisan appeal, so they seem legislatively achievable even with a divided Congress. I dream of more comprehensive solutions here:
https://cbuck.substack.com/p/life-liberty-and-the-pursuit-of-health