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Pfizer signs a cooperation deal with Gilead for remdesivir, a COVID 19 medication

 

Pfizer signed a cooperation deal with Gilead Sciences to produce and supply remdesivir, a promising drug used to treat COVID-19. According to this agreement, Pfizer shall provide production services at its McPherson, Kansas factory in the US. The company would be manufacturing and supplying the drug remdesivir for Gilead.

After signing the cooperation agreement, Pfizer became a promising company in the fight against COVID-19. The deal is aligned with the “innovation ecosystem” that commits to fight a battle against COVID-19 pandemic. The agreement has brought about a fruitful collaboration between small biotech companies and large pharmaceutical companies. Many government agencies associated with academia would be benefitted from this cooperation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a real menace, and a single company cannot really bring about an innovation and put an end to the COVID-19 menace. The deal between Pfizer and Gilead would be good enough to bring about an innovative ecosystem, which will deliver effective medical solutions. Both companies would be working together to manufacture vaccines, sterile injections, and biologics.

 

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300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to be supplied to European Union by Sanofi and GSK

The European Union would be receiving upto 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by GSK and Sanofi. Sanofi and GSK collaborated with each other to produce the vaccine candidate, which is based on recombinant protein-based technology and adjuvant technology. European countries like France, Belgium, Germany, and Italy would be manufacturing doses of this vaccine. This is a major breakthrough in fighting against COVID-19.

This is the first major vaccine against COVID-19 and it will be benefit one million Europeans, provided it is safe and effective at the clinical trial stage. The vaccine would be beneficial in tackling the global pandemic of coronavirus.

In a press release statement, the President of GSK vaccines thanked Sanofi for collaborating with them, and reiterated that the vaccine would be available soon in Europe. Both companies have worked hard to scale up operations and introduce a vaccine that will be able to tackle the growing pandemic of COVID-19.

The clinical trial would be conducted by Sanofi, and the phase 3 stage of the trial would be completed by 2020. If the vaccine produces positive results, the team of scientists at Sanofi would be filing for a regulatory approval, which is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2021. Moreover, Sanofi and GSK have collaborated together to produce an antigen and adjuvant that would produce about one billion doses per year.

Globally, the vaccine would be available through a collaborative effort by Sanofi and GSK

In the United States and the UK, Sanofi and GSK have signed cooperation agreement with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. The companies have decided to scale up the production of the vaccine at a global level by the end of 2021/22. The collaboration would include governments and global health organizations.

 

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How South Korea effectively handled COVID-19 response

 

South Korea has been one of the few countries that could control COVID-19 pandemic effectively. The government of Korea effectively handled the situation without putting extreme pressure on its existing healthcare system. In this article, we explain how South Korea effectively handled the public health system.

Testing Timeline

In South Korea, a diagnostic method based on real-time polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) was developed for coronavirus. The following healthcare systems were involved in this process: the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine, and the Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service.

The specially designed diagnostic kit was introduced commercially on March 9, 2020. The team of scientists introduced 15971 kits in the market, and they were used for testing 522,700 patients. By April 15, about 534,552 people had been tested positive for coronavirus. This constitutes 10.4 people per 1000 population.

About 600 screening centers were assembled in South Korea. In more than 90 medical institutions, specimens were tested with rRT-PCR. The public health system of South Korea is quite effective in tackling infectious diseases. Stringent rules were applicable for contact tracing procedures. South Korea’s public healthcare system is adaptive and compatible with private healthcare system.

The South Korean government provided specialized treatments to coronavirus patients, depending on how severe were their symptoms. The healthcare policies implemented by South Korean government were effective because South Korean society has a homogeneous culture. Compared to most developed countries of the world, South Korea was quite effective in controlling deaths caused by coronavirus.

Let’s further delve into factors responsible for South Korea’s success. Field investigations conducted by the South Korean government were very extensive in terms of their epidemiology. Multiple sources (medical records, credit card, and GPS data) were used to collect patient data. In a recently held survey, more than 84% of South Korean citizens felt that public health security was more important than loss of privacy in terms of data.

South Korea has a political system of uniform democracy. The country has a centralized system of public health governance. Therefore, South Korean agencies are able to implement policies at the local level easily.

 

 

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How to handle manuscript rejection of an academic journal

 

Many ESL (English as Second Language) researchers face manuscript rejections from the editorial board of prestigious peer-reviewed journals. However, they should not be disheartened and devise a strategy to overcome this debacle. Obviously, most authors would like to challenge the decision of the editorial board by making ardent appeals.

They can modify the content of the manuscript to suit the needs of the journal and consider resubmitting the manuscript to the same journal or they may seek the help of publishing experts and submit the revised draft to an entirely different journal. In this article, we describe the steps that authors need to take after manuscript rejection.

It is extremely challenging to comprehend the complex style guides of international scientific journals. As ESL researchers have a limited command over English language, they may seek the help of scientific editors to polish, revise, and review the content of their manuscript. Most authors ask their colleagues to do an informal peer review at the pre-submission stage.

Although a manuscript is revised and reviewed several times before submission, about 40% papers get rejected after being peer-reviewed by an esteemed team of independent researchers. Moreover, the recent survey points out that 21% of scientific papers are rejected outright by the editorial board.

Even after a manuscript is rejected by a journal, an author has several options to move forward. An author need not despair by the negative review process, but they need to adapt to the constructive criticism provided by the editorial board. The reviews provided will certainly help the authors in improving the scientific content of their document.

Let’s explore what an author can to handle rejection by an academic journal

  1. Appeal to the editorial board

Most journal websites display a policy for challenging the rejection of the editorial board. All authors have the fundamental right to appeal against rejection, but the decision should be based on logic. Emotional sentiments do not carry any weightage.

Sometimes, peer reviewers may reject a manuscript due to misunderstanding of content. Such situations are delicate, and authors can still defend their thesis politely. Appeals that elaborate the scope of the journal are not really appreciated by the editorial board.

2. Journal re-submission

When the authors have clarified their stance and cleared all misconceptions of peer reviewers, the editorial board will reconsider their decision and may even invite authors to resubmit their revised manuscript for publication. By incorporating the suggestions of peer reviewers, an author can brighten their chances of publication. However, the editorial board of some journals do not have any re-submission policy, and authors need to respect their viewpoint. In such cases, authors should try to find another journal suitable for publication.

3. Modify the manuscript before submitting it to a different journal

Most authors prefer to submit their work to another journal after facing rejection from the journal of their choice. However, the authors should carefully incorporate the changes suggested the peer-reviewers of the first journal. This would improve the scientific accuracy of the content and improve the hopes of publication in another journal.

Nevertheless, an author would still need to work on the manuscript and adjust it to the style specifications of a different journals. All journals have specific instructions for authors, and reference styles of most journals differ depending upon the field of study. A carefully worded, concise cover letter will impress the reviewing editor of the journal.

4. Submit to another journal without modifying the manuscript

Although this option seems to be easy, it is not really recommended to novice authors. All the efforts put forth by the esteemed team of peer reviewers would go in vain when authors do not acknowledge their suggestions. In general, most suggestions offered by peer reviewers improve the quality of the manuscript.

There could be some suggestions that may be erroneous due to misunderstanding and those can be overlooked. Although the set of peer reviewers would be different for another journal, they too may highlight the same flaws in the manuscript. All authors should carefully handle manuscript rejection of an academic journal.

5. Discard the manuscript and do not resubmit it to another journal

Some authors may feel so dejected that they may totally do away with the manuscript. Resubmitting a manuscript to another journal is a pain-staking process, but it is not correct to discard valuable research findings. Research data has to be published somewhere for mutual academic benefits. Who knows your data may be a building block for path-breaking research in the future?

We all know that scholarly publishing was concealed under paywalls, but things have changed today with the success of open access journals. Compared to the conventional subscription journals, many open access journals are less strict with their review process. Journals like PeerJ, PLOS One are incredible for biomedical researchers. Platforms like Figshare make research data freely accessible and citable to the masses.

6. Hire the services of author education companies

Finally, authors may consider the services offered by many author education companies. A complete package of scientific review, English editing, and journal selection may improve their chances of publication. Academic editors are native English speakers with advanced degrees in science and technology. They have an impressive track record of publication in international journals. Although there are several such companies, Harrisco is a name to reckon with.

Harrisco has been operational for the last 25 years, making Korean research accessible to international journals. Many retired American professors work remotely for Harrisco, embellishing the work of scientific manuscripts translated from Korean to English. So, the next time you face manuscript rejection, remember you are not alone. Harrisco is here to help every ESL researcher overcome the challenge of publishing in international English journals.