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The World Health Organization (WHO) approved Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ drug cocktail of casirivimab and imdevimab for use on COVID-19 patients last week, but that endorsement came with a caveat: it urged lower prices, patent releases and equitable distribution.
The Regeneron antibody... Read More »
At the United States-hosted Global COVID-19 Summit last week, world leaders recommitted to guaranteeing equitable vaccine access for all countries through COVAX, and pledged a mix of funds, doses and supply chain aid to ensure it.
“Science has made huge progress in the fight to save lives,... Read More »
A cooperative effort was enacted against zoonotic diseases this week, with an agreement reached between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and France’s Preventing Zoonotic Disease Emergence (PREZODE) initiative.
Members of the IAEA’s Zoonotic Disease Integrated Action (ZODIAC)... Read More »
Curtiss-Wright Corporation officials said the firm has secured Navy contracts totaling $100 million to provide pumps for the military branch's Virginia-class submarine, Columbia-class submarine and Ford-class aircraft carrier programs.
“Curtiss-Wright is proud to have been awarded these... Read More »
The Mexican government approved biotechnology company INOVIO to begin a Phase 3 efficacy trial of its COVID-19 DNA vaccine candidate, INO-4800, this week alongside its partner Advaccine Biopharmaceuticals Suzhou Co., Ltd.
This Mexican trial is part of a larger, worldwide Phase 2/3 trial known as... Read More »
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and its HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) announced that it supports the Biden Administration’s movements in making the COVID-19 vaccines accessible around the world, but said more could be done to achieve vaccine equity.
In a letter to the... Read More »
While falling short of the full authorization Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE have clamored for, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has amended existing emergency use authorization (EUA) for the companies’ COVID-19 vaccine to allow a single booster dose for certain... Read More »
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) commended President Joe Biden for hosting a Global COVID-19 Summit and encouraged those participating in the summit to commit to stemming the impacts of the pandemic around the world.
NTI -- a nonprofit, nonpartisan global security organization focused on... Read More »
Tacking onto President Joe Biden’s call to make the United States an arsenal of vaccines for the world, Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE agreed to expand an arrangement with the U.S. government and provide another 500 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine for low and lower-middle-income... Read More »
As the CEO of American PAPR, a Brooklyn-based company that manufactures American-made personal protective equipment, Giles Kyser has hired lobbyists to make the case that the federal government should procure medical equipment whose raw materials are sourced and assembled in the United States.... Read More »
As more vaccine developers consider the potential of COVID-19 boosters, Johnson & Johnson announced this week that the latest data shows its own booster shot provides 94 percent protection when given two months after a first dose.
That represents a major improvement, providing as much as a... Read More »
Leaders of several international organizations including the International Monetary Fund, World Bank Group, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization met with the CEOs of leading vaccine manufacturing companies to discuss way to improve low- and lower-middle income countries’... Read More »
The fourth implementation phase of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority’s (BARDA) Transatlantic Taskforce for Antimicrobial Resistance (TATFAR) began this week, opening a new round of efforts to mobilize investment to fight growing antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
To... Read More »
According to new data from clinical trials highlighted by Moderna, Inc. this week, its debut COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA-1273, continues to be highly effective against COVID-19, providing 96 percent efficacy against hospitalization and 87 percent against infection.
The data -- from a study at Kaiser... Read More »
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company have secured Department of Defense (DOD) contracts to produce additional doses of monoclonal antibodies to block the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2.
Authorities indicated the $3.2 billion total allotment is in coordination with the Department... Read More »
Global technology firm KBR has formed a partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) analytics software developer Adarga as a means of bolstering defense and national security initiatives, officials said.
Authorities indicated the collaboration would result in the integration of Adarga's AI... Read More »
Vaccine equity is in need of a boost globally, and in Africa in particular, and unless that changes, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and other health leaders said this week the COVID-19 pandemic may never end.
Cooperation is the key to ending the... Read More »
South Dakota-based Synthetik Applied Technologies, LLC has secured a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program award to develop explosives and illicit drugs detection technology.
Officials indicated Synthetik Applied Technologies, LLC was selected... Read More »
Through a contract with SIGA Technologies, Inc., the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has exercised a procurement option to obtain approximately $112.5 million worth of the oral TPOXX smallpox treatment this year.
TPOXX is an orally administered and IV formulation... Read More »
Gaithersburg, Md.-based Emergent BioSolutions Inc. and Canadian vaccine company Providence Therapeutics said on Tuesday they have entered into a $90 million, five-year development and manufacturing agreement to support Providence’s COVID-19 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine candidate.
Already... Read More »
BAE Systems officials said the firm has secured a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract to design a full scale demonstrator aircraft concept with Active Flow Control.
“BAE Systems has been at the forefront of digital design for more than 20 years," Tom Fillingham, senior... Read More »
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday that her state would open up a $40 million Biodefense Commercialization Fund to support the state’s growing Life Science industry.
The fund would provide grants to companies within the state working to bring to market infectious disease solutions... Read More »
Novavax, Inc. began enrollment last week of the first participants for a Phase 1/2 clinical trial to assess the safety and immunogenicity of a combination vaccine formed from the company’s seasonal influenza and COVID-19 vaccines.
Each vaccine has already been tested in solo clinical trials up... Read More »
Under the terms of a new, multi-year agreement reached this week between Moderna and National Resilience, National Resilience will produce mRNA for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines at its Mississauga, Ontario facility.
“Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine has saved countless lives, and we’re excited... Read More »
In its latest Supply Forecast, the multilateral vaccine equity program COVAX announced expectations of 1.425 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines available this year, with 2 billion doses available for delivery in the first quarter of 2022 -- a milestone, but still a lagging figure.
Resulting from... Read More »
As part of a contract signed with Valneva SE last year, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) has decided to utilize an option that will increase supply of the company’s Japanese encephalitis vaccine, IXIARO, to a minimum of 200,000 doses.
Japanese encephalitis is a deadly infectious... Read More »
Approximately 4,000 people from all over the world will be enrolled in a Phase 3 trial of a combined SK bioscience and GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine candidate beginning this week.
The trial will combine the SK COVID-19 vaccine candidate GBP510 with GSK’s pandemic... Read More »
A new policy brief released this month by the advocacy group Pandemic Action Network (PAN) calls on world leaders to create a 100-day action plan toward creating a new financing mechanism at the United Nations General Assembly capable of bolstering pandemic preparedness by at least $10 billion... Read More »
INOVIO received the green light for phase three of its INNOVATE Phase 2/3 clinical trial of INO-4800 last week, allowing it to proceed with efficacy evaluation of its COVID-19 DNA vaccine candidate in Brazil.
Alongside its partner, Advaccine Biopharmaceuticals Suzhou Co., Ltd., INOVIO intends to... Read More »
The largest ever Lassa Fever study in West Africa secured the means of testing this week, thanks to a contract between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Zalgen Labs LLC, which will supply antibody testing kits for up to 7,000 participants.
Zalgen, a biotechnology... Read More »
New data released by Johnson & Johnson this week showed that using its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine as a booster for the previously vaccinated could provide as much as a nine-fold increase in antibodies for patients at least 18 years old.
The news follows interim reports from July, published in... Read More »
A plasma-derived COVID-19 candidate from Emergent BioSolutions Inc. is part of a late-stage federal study that will test the therapy as a potential outpatient treatment for people who are at high risk of developing severe disease, including adults 55 and older and those who are... Read More »
Vaccination has begun for a Phase 2/3 trial of Bharat Biotech International Ltd’s (BBIL) Chikungunya vaccine candidate, through a partnership with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in Costa Rica.
The Costa Rican trial of BBV87, the official name for the candidate, marks the... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) placed a call for partners this week to aid the organization in developing new sequencing-based, agnostic diagnostic tests better capable of detecting respiratory RNA viruses.
Potential partners will be able to help guide the... Read More »
With data from its Phase 3 COVE study showing a COVID-19 vaccine with 93 percent effectiveness, Moderna, Inc. has officially filed for a biologics license application (BLA) to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that would lead to full licensure.
It’s an important step, which... Read More »
