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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 »
Honolulu, Hawaii-based Oceanit Laboratories has secured a $949,999.78 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program award for sensor system development.
While sensors that include range finders, thermal imaging devices, and radio frequency detectors are... Read More »
A 210-person Phase 2 clinical trial for the COVID-19 vaccine candidate, ABNCoV2, began this week to determine its potential as a booster vaccine for those who have either caught the disease previously or been otherwise vaccinated.
Licensed by Bavarian Nordic A/S and developed by AdaptVac, the... Read More »
Northrup Grumman Corporation announced Monday it had opened a new building in Colorado Springs to support its advanced missile defense and strategic deterrent businesses.
The new facility will feature advanced engineering, research labs, software development factories and a high-speed,... Read More »
Results of a Phase 3 clinical trial have shown that AstraZeneca’s antibody combination for COVID-19, AZD7442, cuts the risk of symptomatic COVID-19 cases by 77 percent for at least three months.
That is dependent on the treatment being taken prior to infection. However, the antibodies used in... Read More »
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday granted full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for use among patients 16 years and older, making it the first of the disease’s vaccines to cross beyond conditional use.
Since Dec. 11, 2020, the mRNA-based vaccine had... Read More »
The governing body of FirstNet Authority, the only nationwide, high-speed broadband communications entity dedicated to and purpose-built for first responders, has approved the platform's Fiscal Year 2022 budget.
The First Responder Network Authority Board passed a $253 million budget focusing on... Read More »
According to preclinical data produced by Soligenix, Inc. this week, positive, effective results have been demonstrated by multiple filovirus vaccine candidates.
In collaboration with the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Soligenix’s vaccines proved capable against three potentially deadly... Read More »
Device Solutions, Inc., based in Hillsborough, N.C., has been awarded $981,657.52 via the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program for digital paging development.
The scope of work calls for Device Solutions to provide a standards-based, public... Read More »
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced this week that it will award approximately $53 million in annual funding across the next five years to 10 research organizations currently pursuing HIV cure research.
“June marked the 40th anniversary of the first reported U.S. cases of what... Read More »
As part of a new agreement with Gritstone bio, Inc., the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) will provide up to $20.6 million to support the development of a new, self-amplifying mRNA vaccine candidate for the growing number of COVID-19 variants.
These funds will cover a... Read More »
Battelle recently showcased its Resource Effective Bioidentification System (REB+) and Multi-Threat Decontamination System (MTDS) as a means of demonstrating efforts to combat Chemical/Biological (CB) threats.
The demonstration stemmed from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) funding... Read More »
A preclinical study conducted on non-human primates and published this week showed potential in a second-generation mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate, CV2CoV, created by the joint efforts of biopharmaceutical companies CureVac N.V. and GSK.
Among cynomolgus macaques, the new candidate -- an... Read More »
With diagnostic testing as important as ever in the battle to contain COVID-19, researchers from various institutions under the umbrella of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have banded together to create a new sample preparation method for detecting SARS-CoV-2.
The collaboration has... Read More »
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Thursday that its agency-wide forced labor team was awarded the 2021 Service to America Medals (“Sammies”) People’s Choice Award by the non-profit Partnership for Public Service.
CBP’s forced labor team investigates goods suspected of... Read More »
The specialty vaccine firm Valneva SE has initiated a Phase 3 trial for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, VLA2001.
VLA2001-304 seeks to generate data in the elderly and is designed to potentially enable variant-bridging through immune-comparability. Study data is slated to complement ongoing... Read More »
According to a new manuscript published in Science last week, the majority of people given Moderna Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine maintained antibodies not just against SARS-CoV-2, but against many of its variants of concern, for six months after a second dose.
The two-dose vaccine has been... Read More »
First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) officials recently joined AT&T personnel in unveiling tools designed to aid Rhode Island first responders.
AT&T has delivered a pair of Compact Rapid Deployables (CRDs) to the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency (RIEMA) - adding the state is the... Read More »
The U.S. Navy has awarded a $273 Million contract to Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) in support of fleet ships that include aircraft carriers and surface ships.
“Continuous modernization and sustainment of our nation’s fleet is essential to our national security,” Garry Schwartz,... Read More »
Howe & Howe Inc., a subsidiary of Textron Systems Corporation, recently unveiled the Thermite EV2, an all-electric firefighting robot, as well as a new handheld controller.
“It’s important that we give our first responders the best we have to offer so that they can complete their missions... Read More »
Lockheed Martin has secured a $157 million Missile Defense Agency contract to upgrade Command, Control, Battle Management & Communications (C2BMC) system capability.
Officials indicated the scope of work would include augmenting C2BMC’S engagement support capability for the Ground-Based... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recently selected three teams to support the Harnessing Enzymatic Activity for Lifesaving Remedies (HEALR) program.
The HEALR program, which bolsters chemical biology, medicinal chemistry, and microbiology expertise to transform the field of... Read More »
Groups of medical experts this week proposed a standardized definition for defining and evaluating placental SARS-CoV-2 infections to optimize both clinical care and new research, as well as the pursuit of COVID-19 vaccinations for pregnant individuals.
The first came from a panel of experts... Read More »
Regulatory approval was granted for two new clinical trials of INO-4800 in China this week, allowing its creator INOVIO and its partners Advaccine Biopharmaceuticals Suzhou Co. Ltd. and Sinovac Biotechnology to investigate the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of different... Read More »
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently announced it has been working with the cruise industry to modernize the passenger arrival process via biometric facial comparison.
The technology provides an extra layer of security while streamlining travel into the United States by... Read More »
For two days at the end of July, NTI | bio organized a virtual workshop of more than 40 international participants to address the possibility of developing a new Joint Assessment Mechanism to plug gaps in global biosecurity laid bare by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Originally proposed by NTI... Read More »
A new partnership announced last week between Integrum Scientific and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) will advance progress toward a Rift Valley fever (RVF) vaccine by developing an international antibody standard and validation of new assays.
From now until September... Read More »
BARDA’s Division of Research Innovation and Ventures (DRIVe) announced Thursday that it will partner with US Biologic Inc. to develop an oral vaccine for two strains of the influenza virus.
Part of BARDA DRIVe’s Beyond the Needle program, the partnership’s goal is to make vaccines and... Read More »
A Phase Three trial of Valneva SE’s chikungunya vaccine candidate, VLA1553, met with major success, according to topline results released last week that showed it induced protective neutralizing antibody titers in 98.5 percent of subjects after a single vaccination.
The trial involved 4,115... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced legislation last week that would allocate $2 billion to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
The Disease X Act would provide $2 billion over the next four years -- $500 million per year, beginning in 2022 -- for BARDA to... Read More »
