The latest setback in the race for a coronavirus vaccine

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On Monday evening, Johnson & Johnson said it halted all dosing associated with its coronavirus vaccine trials after an “unexplained illness” in a participant, as first reported by Stat News. It’s another setback to the vaccine race after AstraZeneca’s trial also hit a snag in September. 

We’re officially three weeks away from the presidential election. Between that and arguments slated for next month on the Affordable Care Act, all eyes are on the Trump administration to have a plan should the law be struck down.

Kimberly Leonard spoke to one of Trump’s top advisors about what might happen, since the administration hasn’t laid out a plan to replace the law.

And across the pond, England is getting set to start closing parts of the country down as case counts rise.

Elsewhere in healthcare news: Pfizer's expanding its vaccine trial to include kids as young as 12, what antiabortion groups think of Trump taking an experimental drug tested on cells derived from an aborted fetus, and antibody drug trials have seen an uptick in interest. 

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Pfizer will start testing its coronavirus vaccine on children as young as 12, a crucial step to bringing the shot to more people

• Pfizer is expanding its massive coronavirus vaccine clinical trial, opening the study to include children as young as 12.
• The company is poised to become the first major drugmaker to start testing a COVID-19 shot in kids in a large-scale study.
• The New York pharma giant said it got permission to boost the study's overall size to as many as 48,400 volunteers.

Read the full story from Andrew Dunn here>>

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Antiabortion groups say they stand behind Trump's use of a drug tested on cells derived from an aborted fetus because the president 'was not involved with that abortion'

• An antibody cocktail President Trump received for his COVID-19 treatment was tested using stem cells derived from a fetus that was aborted in 1972 in the Netherlands.
• Antiabortion organizations have spoken out against the use of these stem cells, which have been lab-engineered and duplicated, to test vaccines. Trump has also restricted use of these stem cells in research.
• Three leaders of antiabortion organizations told Insider that though the testing wasn't ethical, they stood behind Trump's decision.
• One said Trump has been "sensational on the life issues."

Read the full story from Julia Naftulin here>>

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More patients want to join antibody drug trials after Trump's coronavirus treatment — though we don't know yet if it actually helps COVID-19

• Coronavirus patients are asking to join clinical trials of antibody-based drugs after President Trump was given an experimental antibody therapy.
• Regeneron, the company that made the antibody cocktail given to Trump, told Business Insider that "generally we have seen an uptick in clinical trial interest overall in recent weeks."
• Regeneron's antibody cocktail has not yet been approved by regulators and is only available to those taking part in the trial.

Read the full story from Sinéad Baker here>>

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More stories we're reading:

• Vaccine developments are more important to stocks than election results and 3rd-quarter earnings, Goldman Sachs says (Markets Insider)
• The pandemic diary of a Bellevue primary care doctor (The New Yorker)
• ICYMI: Meet the 30 young leaders who are forging a new future for the $3.6 trillion healthcare industry (Business Insider)
• A thorough review of Clover Health's plans to go public via SPAC (Kevin O'Leary, on Medium)
• The 6 life science real estate markets to watch as the red-hot biotech and pharmaceutical sector draws in billions of dollars in funding  (Business Insider)

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