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The nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) | bio virtually convened an interdisciplinary group of experts and world leaders earlier this month to push for a global organization to reduce biotechnology risks, promote biosecurity and strengthen international oversight of life sciences... Read More »
Thanks to a $400,000 grant from The Rockefeller Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security will document, evaluate and spread information on large-scale health successes among the COVID-19 response in low and middle-income nations over the past year.
This information will be used... Read More »
Academia and the private sector must be in a collaborative relationship with the United States government to invest in the research and development of technologies that will prevent a future pandemic, experts said on Wednesday during a webinar hosted by the Capitol Hill Steering Committee on... Read More »
A phase two clinical study of the Emergent BioSolutions, Inc. chikungunya virus vaccine candidate has been shown to spur antibodies, reflecting a persistent immune response for two years, after just a single dose.
There is currently no vaccine to prevent or treat chikungunya virus infection,... Read More »
Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) officials said the organization has expanded its partnership with SK bioscience to develop a vaccine to combat SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern.
The agreement calls for CEPI to earmark up to $173.4 million for SK bioscience's to COVID-19... Read More »
Plans are underway to submit the Moderna, Inc. COVID-19 vaccine to regulators in early June to expand its use, following positive results from a Phase 2/3 study that distributed the vaccine among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years old.
The vaccine, known as mRNA-1273, met its primary immunogenicity... Read More »
As part of a new Memorandum of Understanding between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Swiss Confederation, the first facility in the WHO BioHub System was agreed to this week.
Such facilities, first announced in November 2020, will serve as centers for reception, sequencing, storage,... Read More »
Under a new agreement announced last week, Samsung Biologics will bolster the global supply of mRNA-1273, Moderna, Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine, by providing large-scale, commercial fill-finish manufacturing.
Technology transfer began upon execution of the deal so that Samsung Biologics could... Read More »
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) officials said the agency is partnering with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), seeking large capacity floating device solutions.
To that end, the entities will conduct a virtual Industry Day on May 25, 2021, to discuss the... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) launched a new survey this week to assess the vaccine manufacturing capacity and capabilities of Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, to better inform ahead of future epidemics.
“While incredible efforts were... Read More »
Bavarian Nordic A/S and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced this week that they will support World Health Organization (WHO) led efforts to contain the spread of Ebola in West Africa through the donation of up to 200,000 doses of J&J’s vaccine regimen.
The partnership owes to the fact that... Read More »
Up to $4.1 million in non-dilutive funding from nonprofit CARB-X was announced this week for Summit Therapeutics to help develop a first-in-class antibiotic to treat multidrug-resistant infections, and specifically, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections.
This funding will aid... Read More »
The top two executives of Emergent BioSolutions Inc. on Wednesday promised to provide additional documentation requested by congressional lawmakers who are investigating the Maryland-based biopharmaceutical company’s failure to manufacture usable coronavirus vaccines under a contract with the... Read More »
A Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.-created drug cocktail of casirivimab with imdevimab, REGEN-COV, was recently shown to provide a 70 percent reduced risk of hospitalization or death and shortened symptom duration in non-hospitalized patients afflicted with COVID-19.
The drug cocktail is meant... Read More »
Across all adult age groups, going as high as 95 years old, a phase two trial of the Sanofi and GSK adjuvanted recombinant COVID-19 vaccine candidate has demonstrated high antibody responses and no safety concerns, according to interim data released this week.
Strong immune responses included a... Read More »
The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) recently awarded a $100,000 contract to Charles River Analytics for the creation of a means to assemble information from global trade networks and pharmaceutical drug data and present it in a way that would allow quick identification of problems in the supply... Read More »
Fearing for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, COVAX has set up a manufacturing task force to coordinate with other organizations in identifying and tackling roadblocks to those critical health supplies.
According to the task force, the production output of COVID-19 vaccines is set to... Read More »
In a public statement released last week, nine national organizations highlighted the pains COVID-19 inflicted upon the world in general and already historically marginalized populations in specific and pressed for strategies to improve crisis standards of care, along with equity.
“The... Read More »
As part of a World Health Organization (WHO) early access clinical program in Sierra Leone, up to 200,000 vaccine regimens from Johnson & Johnson will be distributed among children and adults.
Donated to the WHO for the program, the vaccine regimen already received prequalification from the WHO... Read More »
A new low-cost, rapid diagnostic test for COVID-19 developed by Penn Medicine provides results within four minutes and is 90 percent accurate.
According to a paper published this week in Matter, the test – RAPID 1.0 (Real-time Accurate Portable Impedimetric Detection prototype 1.0) – is... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions Inc., a multinational biopharmaceutical company, on Wednesday said it is on track to meet federal COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing standards and executives will testify during a congressional hearing next week on the company’s progress since a batch of the coronavirus vaccine... Read More »
The U.S. Army awarded this week Northrop Grumman Corporation a five-year, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract valued at $959.1 million for full-rate production of the Common Infrared Countermeasure (CIRCM) system.
“CIRCM’s cutting-edge capability has been proven against... Read More »
Biotechnology company INOVIO revealed that the placebo-controlled and blinded phase two segment of a United States clinical vaccine trial has shown positive, safe, and well-tolerated results for INO-4800 when used against COVID-19.
As a result of the test results, a 2 mg dose will be used for... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Monday that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is now authorized for emergency use among adolescents ages 12 through 15.
While children have seemingly been less susceptible to COVID-19 at large, they can still be carriers, and plenty have... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced Friday it has awarded researchers at the University of Texas Medica Branch (UTMB) at Galveston $11.3 million to study Ebola.
The multiyear grant will fund research into the immunopathogenesis of Ebola, specifically why cells... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has exercised the final $12 million option to produce the remaining $202 million smallpox vaccine order.
The order would be supplied by JYNNEOS, encompassing the Smallpox and Monkeypox vaccine. The option covers the supply of... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Dynavax Technologies Corporation expanded the terms of a manufacturing agreement last week to include an additional $77 million for adjuvant used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The funding injection, provided in the form of a forgivable loan... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) added the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine produced by Beijing Bio-Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd. to the list of vaccines approved for emergency use worldwide last week, giving a potential new source and new boost for efforts by the COVAX... Read More »
Bloomberg Philanthropies will award up to $50,000 each to 18 cities in low and middle-income countries that are part of the Partnership for Healthy Cities and planning vaccine distribution rollouts with high-risk populations emphasized.
Vaccine preparedness activities, including communication... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) joined other members of Congress to call on Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson to expand access to the COVID-19 vaccine globally.
In a letter sent on May 5, Merkley, along with Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and... Read More »
The commercial-stage pharmaceutical company SIGA Technologies, Inc. has filed a New Drug Application (NDA) with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the intravenous formulation (IV) of TPOXX.
The proposed NDA to treat human smallpox disease in adults and pediatric patients is the same as... Read More »
In an initial primary analysis of the Phase 2b trial of COVID-19 vaccine NVX-CoV-2373, a New England Journal of Medicine-published report revealed that the vaccine provided approximately 55 percent efficacy to non-HIV patients when pitted against the South African variant, B.1.351.
The Novavax,... Read More »
Moderna, Inc. reported initial data this week showing that in phase two testing, its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine proved effective and well-tolerated as a booster or a single 50 µg dose on the previously vaccinated, against both the original SARS-CoV-2 strain and two variants of concern.
In all, three... Read More »
Raytheon Intelligence & Space has secured a five-year, $318 million Transportation Security Administration (TSA) contract to expand checked baggage screening equipment deployment at federally managed airports.
Raytheon Intelligence & Space is a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies and previously... Read More »
Responding to the spiraling COVID-19 situation in India, Pfizer Inc. announced this week that it will provide more than $70 million worth of medicines to the country immediately, with assistance from government and non-governmental organization partners.
“We are donating enough medicines to... Read More »
