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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 »
The U.S. government added to its supplies of COVID-19 treatments this week with the announcement of $1 billion worth of new deals to bring GlaxoSmithKline plc and Vir Biotechnology, Inc.’s sotrovimab into its stocks.
The agreements were clinched after final data was released from the COMET-ICE... Read More »
According to updates from AstraZeneca, the company and its partners managed to provide 2 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to more than 170 countries within 11 months of its first approval and a little more than 18 months after AstraZeneca partnered with Oxford University on... Read More »
Dosing of the first volunteers for a Phase 1b clinical trial of Ebola vaccine candidate INO-4201 began this week to assess whether the vaccine could function as a booster for healthy, previously vaccinated patients.
The latest study followed positive results from pre-clinical and Phase 1 trials... Read More »
The United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) gained access to Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 oral antiviral treatment candidate PF-07321332 this week, enabling the organization to produce and distribute the drug to generic sub-licensers for greater global access.
MPP intends to increase... Read More »
Northrop Grumman recently attained a Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) first-stage solid rocket motor manufacturing milestone by successfully executing the first insulation and case wind processes.
“Working closely with the Air Force and nationwide team of industry partners, we continue... Read More »
National Security Agency (NSA) recently announced a partnership with the National Cryptologic Foundation to strengthen domestic cybersecurity education and cybersecurity job possibilities.
The collaboration is expected to promote a deeper understanding of prior domestic cryptologic successes;... Read More »
Data from the latest global survey on implementation of the Global Action Plan on addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) showed that more countries than ever are determined to fight AMR, but also major setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of the 163 countries that responded to the survey... Read More »
A new effort by the COVAX Facility -- the COVAX Humanitarian Buffer -- received a shot in the arm this week through a new agreement with Johnson & Johnson, which will bring its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine to bear to help approximately 167 million displaced people around the world.
COVAX -- the... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office (CWMD) has awarded a contract to Smiths Detection to provide 110 radiation portal monitors (RPM).
The RPMs would be deployed across land border crossings throughout the country. The passive checkpoints... Read More »
The United States federal government exercised two options on contracts with Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics this week to purchase an additional 1.4 million courses of the investigational oral antiviral molnupiravir for use against COVID-19.
This deal will amount to approximately $1 billion... Read More »
With approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now in hand, INOVIO intends to proceed with a Phase 3 segment of its INNOVATE trial for the COVID-19 vaccine candidate INO-4800 in the United States.
Authorization followed a partial clinical hold on the candidate, while the FDA... Read More »
For at least eight months following a single dose, the REGEN-COV COVID-19 drug cocktail developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. could provide affiliated risk reductions of 81.6 percent, according to a new analysis of a Phrase 3 trial.
That trial, jointly run by Regeneron and the National... Read More »
MSA Safety Inc. earned a $4 million contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last week to produce elastomeric air-purifying respirators to be added to the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).
The MSA’s Advantage 290 Air-Purifying Respirator (APR) consists of a... Read More »
Interim data from Pfizer Inc.’s novel COVID-19 antiviral candidate, PAXLOVID, revealed an oral treatment with the ability to cut the risk of hospitalization and death by as much as 89 percent among adult patients.
These results, pulled from the randomized Phase 2/3 EPIC-HR (Evaluation of... Read More »
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced it had selected Northeastern University to lead a consortium of U.S. academic institutions for a new Center of Excellence for Engineering Secure Environments from Targeted Attacks... Read More »
The antiviral Molnupiravir became the first oral treatment for COVID-19 to receive authorization this week, winning approval from the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency for treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 cases in adults.
Specifically, users must have had at... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) made its eighth emergency use listing (EUL) for a COVID-19 vaccine this week, granting that honor to Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN.
COVAXIN is formulated from an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 -- the virus that causes COVID-19 -- antigen. Use of the vaccine by adults was... Read More »
As world leaders gather in Glasgow for the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, a new global partnership has formed to focus on the impact of climate change on terrorism, the group said Tuesday.
The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), Pool Re... Read More »
A Q2 Solutions Co., Ltd. lab facility in Beijing, China, became the first East Asian lab to join the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations’ (CEPI) centralized COVID-19 lab network this week.
“I am delighted to today welcome Q2 Solutions’ facility in Beijing to this group of... Read More »
The failures, successes, and lessons learned from the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines should be incorporated immediately into future pandemic vaccine planning if the world hopes to avoid the delays and pitfalls of the modern ecosystem, according to a new report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health... Read More »
Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notified Moderna, Inc. that an assessment of an emergency use authorization request for its COVID-19 vaccine to be used on adolescents may not be completed before January 2022.
The delay was due to a stated necessity to evaluate recent... Read More »
A new partnership between the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and RIVANNA seeks to develop the company’s Accuro XV device for the release of a portable 3D fracture detection and diagnosis system without radiation.
The rapid-working system is based on ultrasound... Read More »
In collaboration with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) SIGMA+ program announced Friday it had recently concluded a three-month-long pilot study of sensors intended to support early detection of weapons of mass... Read More »
The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator released a new strategic plan last week that seeks $23.4 billion from international investors by September 2022 to patch inequalities in access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, vaccines, and personal protective equipment.
This is particularly... Read More »
Boeing officials announced that the aerospace company has broken ground on a 370,000 square-foot maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility located at Cecil Airport in Jacksonville, Fla.
The endeavor would support the company's ability to deliver readiness outcomes for domestic government... Read More »
Reckoning with the threat of diseases present and future, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) announced a new collaboration last week with BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) to develop and win approval for diagnostics capable of identifying COVID-19, influenza, as... Read More »
FirstNet, which officials have deemed public safety's network built to strict specifications and requirements, is touting over 2.8 million nationwide connections through 18,500 public safety agencies.
"In less than five years, we've built a network with and for America's first responders and... Read More »
