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U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) are touting the benefits of the Navy awarding a $70.8 million contract to Huntington Ingalls to purchase materials for construction of the LHA 9 ship, an America-class amphibious assault craft.
The ship will be built in Pascagoula,... Read More »
A new report released by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security this week determined that the failure to incorporate primary care providers into the frontline response to COVID-19 and the larger public health system could have improved care, testing, and vaccination acceptance.
In... Read More »
Results came in this week from a Phase 2/3 trial of Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 oral antiviral treatment, and the data showed a drug capable of cutting risks of hospitalization or death by 89 percent among high-risk adults, when given within a few days of their first symptoms.
The final data from... Read More »
Seeking broader protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants and other betacoronaviruses, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced this week that it would invest up to $4.5 million into development of a vaccine candidate based on Affinivax, Inc.’s Multiple Antigen Presenting... Read More »
On Friday, Moderna, maker of one of the FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines, announced it will amend its contract with Gavi, the vaccine alliance, to accelerate the supply of 20 million doses of the vaccine to COVAX by the end of the year.
The total number of vaccines supplied to COVAX in 2021 now... Read More »
Pfizer and BioNTech officials recently provided an update regarding the Omicron variant, noting results of an initial laboratory study demonstrating serum antibodies via BNT162b2 neutralize the variant after three doses.
“Although two doses of the vaccine may still offer protection against... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved this week an emergency use authorization (EUA) for AstraZeneca’s Evusheld, authorizing the use of monoclonal antibodies to reduce specific COVID-19 risk.
Evusheld is tixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab and administered together to... Read More »
The Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense announced launched a public awareness campaign Wednesday to support the Apollo Program for Biodefense, a project that aims to eliminate pandemics in ten years and reduce other biological threats.
The campaign, similar in scope and importance to landing... Read More »
A new report from the Nuclear Threat Initiative has found that nations around the world remain “dangerously unprepared” to meet future epidemic and pandemic threats,
The report – the 2021 Global Health Security (GHS) Index -- measured the capacities of 195 countries to prepare for... Read More »
Lockheed Martin's Sikorsky division has received a Restricted Category Special Airworthiness Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its S-70M Black Hawk helicopter.
“With type certification, new production S-70M Black Hawk helicopters in the latest configuration are... Read More »
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Tuesday that it has awarded $22 million to nearly 30 organizations across the globe to combat antimicrobial resistance (AR) and other healthcare threats.
The CDC also established two new networks – the Global Action in Healthcare... Read More »
Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security met with leading technology and cybersecurity industry executives to discuss how the federal government and the private sector work together better to tackle key cybersecurity challenges.
The meeting was attended by Homeland Security... Read More »
Members of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee expressed support for a proposed initiative that would create an international organization aimed at detecting and preventing new biological threats, either unintentionally developed or intentionally introduced by rogue actors, like terrorists or... Read More »
With a new disease variant come further questions of vaccine viability and new tests, and this week, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced an expansion of a vaccine agreement with Gritstone bio Inc. to test its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine against the Omicron variant.... Read More »
Clinical stage biopharmaceutical company Heat Biologics, Inc. recently unveiled a new cellular vaccine platform that it says is designed to allow quicker manufacturing, greater stockpiling and customizability suited to combating a wide range of biological threats.
The emergence of the Omicron... Read More »
Preliminary results from a Phase 2 mix and match trial of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 booster vaccine are in, and they determined that administered six months after a vaccination routine of BioNTech and Pfizer’s BNT162b2, both antibody and T-cell responses rise.
The independent study,... Read More »
As part of a trial co-funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp. (MVC), researchers will mix and match COVID-19 boosters focusing on combinations of MVC’s vaccine candidate and others.
“As we strive to stay one step ahead of... Read More »
Last week, the board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, approved an initial investment of $155.7 million to support the introduction, acquisition, and delivery of malaria vaccines throughout eligible nations in sub-Saharan Africa between 2022 and 2025.
The public-private health organization hopes... Read More »
A new report from the Bipartisan Policy Center makes recommendations on modernizing the U.S. public healthcare systems in light of the challenges the country has faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, Public health Forward: Modernizing the U.S. Public Health System, outlines critical... Read More »
Battelle announced that it has secured a Large Sport Utility Vehicle (LSUV) design contract from the Department of State (DoS) to develop armored Ford Expeditions.
“Battelle is proud to bring its depth of engineering skills to DSS and other government agencies seeking armored vehicles... Read More »
Results from non-human primate testing of a Soligenix, Inc.-developed Bivalent Thermostabilized Filovirus vaccine, released this week, suggested 100 percent protection provided against the Sudan ebolavirus among dosed non-human primates.
The single vial vaccine is meant to target both the... Read More »
Argentum Medical, a Geneva, Ill.-based medical device company, announced Tuesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had granted its Silverlon Wound Contact, Burn Contact Dressings a Breakthrough Device designation.
The FDA’s Breakthrough Device Program creates a pathway for... Read More »
A 13-10 vote by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee (AMDAC) set the stage for recommending Emergency Use Authorization of the Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics oral COVID-19 antiviral molnupiravir this week.
The narrow backing followed a... Read More »
Moving quickly to address concerns raised by the Omicron COVID-19 variant, following its discovery last week, INOVIO announced it will evaluate two of its COVID-19 DNA vaccine candidates against the variant and has begun pre-clinical development of another specifically tailored to it.
Omicron... Read More »
Oshkosh Corporation officials said a subsidiary of the company, Oshkosh Defense, has secured an Army contract totaling $591.6 million for 1,669 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV).
The contract, which was awarded via the Army Contracting Command – Detroit Arsenal (ACC-DTA), includes 868... Read More »
Northrop Grumman Corporation has secured a $153 million Navy contract to produce AGM-88E2 Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missiles (AARGM) for the Navy and German Air Force.
“As threats continue to evolve, AARGM remains an affordable solution to continue protecting the Navy and our allies with... Read More »
Results of a study on molnupiravir, an investigational oral antiviral developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics for use against COVID-19, showed this week that the drug cuts the risk of hospitalization or death by approximately 3 percent.
The trial of 1,433 participants focused on those... Read More »
Moderna announced last week a strategy for addressing the new Omicron variant of COVID-19, including a new booster vaccine and studies of boosters that have already anticipated its mutations.
The rushed strategy announcement came in the wake of closing borders and the World Health... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) recently reached a joint licensing agreement with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) for a non-exclusive COVID-19 serological antibody test.
The CSIC-developed test, to be... Read More »
A new report from the CommuniVax Coalition has found that while progress has been made regarding equity in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, more work is needed.
Led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Department of Anthropology at... Read More »
Building on the success of its COVID-10 vaccine testing network to date, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced this week that it will expand its centralized testing capabilities to the development of vaccines for other epidemic and pandemic diseases.
CEPI’s... Read More »
Huntington Ingalls Industries announced that the company's Ingalls Shipbuilding division has received a $113.6 million Navy contract modification for the
Amphibious Assault Ship LHA 9.
The contract would enable long-lead-time material and advance procurement activities, bringing the total... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) committed another $36.9 million to expand a contract with Clover Biopharmaceuticals and support the development of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, SCB-2019, for use as a booster.
The new injection of funding increases CEPI’s investment... Read More »
The Biden administration announced an agreement with Pfizer Inc. last week that will provide 10 million courses of the company’s COVID-19 oral antiviral Paxlovid, pending Emergency Use Authorization or approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“This promising... Read More »
Lockheed Martin recently announced that efforts to accelerate the production of its most advanced air defense missile have resulted in a milestone achievement.
Citing response to a government request last year, Lockheed Martin said it has completed production of its 1000th PAC-3 Missile Segment... Read More »
