Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has said the first volunteers have now been dosed in its clinical trial of a new drug to help prevent and treat Covid-19.

The group, which is also separately developing a Covid-19 vaccine together with scientists at Oxford University, said the drug - known as AZD7442 - is a combination of two monoclonal antibodies.

AstraZeneca said the trial, which will include up to 48 healthy volunteers in the UK aged 18 to 55, will look at the safety of the treatment, as well as the body's reaction to the drug and how it processes it.

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The Cambridge-headquartered group said the phase 1 clinical trial is an "important milestone" in the development of the drug, which has the potential to act as a preventative for people exposed to the virus, as well as to treat patients already infected with Covid-19.

A so-called monoclonal antibody combination works by mimicking the body's natural antibodies.

The antibodies come from patients infected with coronavirus and were discovered by Vanderbilt University Medical Centre and then licensed to AstraZeneca in June.

Astra then boosts the combined antibodies so that they "afford at least six months of protection from Covid-19".

Mene Pangalos, executive vice-president of biopharmaceuticals research and development at Astra, said: "This trial is an important milestone in the development of our monoclonal antibody combination to prevent or treat Covid-19.

"This combination of antibodies, coupled to our proprietary half-life extension technology, has the potential to improve both the effectiveness and durability of use, in addition to reducing the likelihood of viral resistance."

If the trial is successful, Astra said it would look to move the treatment to late-stage phase 2 and phase 3 trials.

The trial is being funded by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

It comes after Downing Street said on Monday the UK would be first in line for the coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and Astra, once approved.

This followed reports that Donald Trump was considering granting emergency authorisation for it to be fast-tracked in the US.

Cambridge-based software giant Aveva has spent five billion US dollars (£3.8 billion) on a SoftBank-backed data company from California.

The acquisition will see the UK company take over a business on the other side of the pond that it believes will compliment its own.

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OSIsoft collects huge streams of data from mines, factories, or other industrial sites, and helps a company analyse it.

Founded in 1980 by Dr Patrick Kennedy, the business calls itself a global leader in real-time industrial data software and services.

It employs 1,400 people and is used at 14,000 sites across 127 countries, counting nine of the Global Fortune Top 10 pharmaceutical companies among its customers, as well as most of the world's main oil and gas firms.

In an online ad, OSIsoft asks: "How come your data isn't performing incredible feats? How come you haven't achieved digital transformation nirvana yet?"

It promises to collect data and turn it "into insight" for customers.

OSIsoft had 152.2 million dollars (£116 million) in adjusted earnings before interest and tax (Ebit) on revenue of 488.5 million dollars (£373 million) in the most recent financial year.

Its ownership is currently split between Dr Kennedy and his family, who own just over 50% of its shares, SoftBank, with just under 45%, and Mitsui & Co, which owns the remaining 5%.

Aveva chief executive Craig Hayman said: "The acquisition of OSIsoft is perfectly in line with our strategic vision and it will accelerate the enlarged group's role in the digitisation of the industrial world, which is being driven by a need for sustainability, the industrial internet of things, cloud, data visualisation and artificial intelligence.

"The acquisition will enable Aveva to broaden and deepen its relationships with existing and new customers and bring a more comprehensive product portfolio to market."

Dr Kennedy said: "Joining forces with Aveva enhances and extends our ability to deliver on our key commitments to our customers, partners and employees.
"Together we will be better able to service the largest digital transformation projects in history."

Zoom's chief executive has apologised after a service outage left millions of people unable to use the video platform.

The video conferencing app reported issues with its Meetings and Webinars on Monday afternoon, calling the problem a "partial outage".

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The app has now released a fix for the problem and said service has been restored for all users, with the firm's service status website reporting "all systems operational".

"Everything should be working properly now! We are continuing to monitor the situation. Thank you all for your patience and our sincere apologies for disrupting your day," Zoom said in a message posted to its official Twitter account.

The app's founder and chief executive, Eric Yuan, also apologised for the incident and said the company would do its best to prevent something similar from happening in the future.

"Today @zoom_us had a service disruption that affected many of our customers. We know the responsibility we have to keep your meetings, classrooms & important events running," he said in a tweet.

"I'm personally very sorry & we will all do our best to prevent this from happening in the future."

Zoom has not commented on what caused the outage.

The video platform has seen its user numbers increase exponentially this year as millions of people began using the app in order to work and study as well as stay in touch with loved ones during the coronavirus lockdown.

The company was forced to carry out a major overhaul of its security and privacy features in the wake of its new-found popularity after a number of security flaws were highlighted.

Mr Yuan has previously admitted that the platform initially struggled to deal with the large spike in user numbers - which rose from around 10 million at the start of the year to more than 200 million by March - but has since overseen the rollout of a number of new security tools.

At the time, Mr Yuan said the company had "fallen short" of its own expectations and was "deeply sorry" for the security issues.

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