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The international COVAX facility has managed to deliver more than 38 million doses of various COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to more than 100 economies within 42 days of its first international delivery to Ghana on Feb. 24, 2021.
It is a positive start for a massive global undertaking meant to... Read More »
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has earmarked $3 billion to 64 jurisdictions to bolster broad-based COVID-19 vaccine distribution, access, and administration efforts.
The funding allotment would support local efforts to increase vaccine uptake by expanding COVID-19 vaccine... Read More »
Moderna, Inc. is trumpeting the interim results of a phase three trial of its COVID-19 vaccine, which have shown antibodies persisting for six months post-vaccination.
These results, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, come with some caveats, though. While the results were founded... Read More »
An assessment by the COVID-19 subcommittee of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) has concluded that blood clots affiliated with the AstraZeneca vaccine are concerning but rare and require further study to determine a causal relationship.
All... Read More »
Bavarian Nordic received a new supply order from Janssen Pharmaceutica NV to manufacture and deliver bulk drug substance of MVA-BN Filo vaccine to treat Ebola.
The MVA-BN Filo vaccine will be licensed to Janssen as part of its Ebola vaccine regimen, Zabdeno and Mvabea, which the European... Read More »
The specialty vaccine company Valneva SE has issued positive data for Part A of the Phase 1/2 clinical trial of its inactivated, adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine candidate VLA2001.
Officials noted subject to regulatory approval, the company plans to initiate a Phase 3 clinical trial by the end of... Read More »
Moderna, Inc. is joining forces with Catalent, Inc. to create a high-speed vial filling line in Indiana that will aid the manufacture of its COVID-19 vaccine and, potentially, other items in Moderna’s clinical portfolio.
While Catalent -- a provider of advanced delivery technologies,... Read More »
The Symbiotica COVID-19 Self-Collected Antibody Test System gained emergency use authorization from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week, making it the first antibody test authorized for use with self-collected dried blood spot samples.
The test allows those prescribed... Read More »
A new COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) began a phase one clinical trial this week, following positive preclinical showings against SARS-CoV-2, its variants, and SARS-CoV-1, as well.
"Even before recent COVID-19 variants were identified, our team... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. reported this week that it is on schedule to meet all manufacturing commitments related to COVID-19 vaccines, and that the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has increased its original task order by $23 million.
The funding injection from... Read More »
Alion Science and Technology has secured a $77 million Air Force agreement to provide aircraft and weapons systems research and development for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office (JPO).
Officials indicated the task without order possesses a 60-month period of performance via the... Read More »
An ongoing Phase 2a trial of a Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies-developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate has been expanded to include adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17.
While there are still no approved COVID-19 vaccines for children, cases of COVID-19 in children have generally been less... Read More »
Although it already has a successful COVID-19 vaccine in circulation, Moderna is developing a vaccine designed to address the troubling South African variant of the disease (B.1.351), and as of last week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began a phase one trial to evaluate it.
Known as... Read More »
Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) personnel recently joined NASCAR and law enforcement officials in a tabletop exercise focusing on GEICO 500 hypothetical public safety incidents.
CISA Executive Assistant Director for Infrastructure Security... Read More »
Bell Textron and Army officials said terms have been reached regarding the execution of the Competitive Demonstration and Risk Reduction (CD&RR) contract's second phase involving the V-280 Valor design.
“This is the next step to a program of record, and Bell is proud to closely collaborate... Read More »
Clinicians have created a portable test -- dubbed NIRVANA -- capable of detecting and sequencing COVID-19, its variants, and other viruses in mere moments, according to data published in the journal Med.
Primarily, the test cuts out the need for extra diagnostics and middlemen.
"This is a... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) announced this week that it will invest up to $200 million into promising vaccine candidates for SARS-CoV-2 and Betacoronavirus, following a call for proposals.
This funding will carry candidates through to clinical proof of concept and forms one... Read More »
Global healthcare company GSK has reached a principle agreement with Novavax and the UK Government Vaccines Taskforce to support the manufacturing of up to 60 million doses of Novavax’ COVID-19 vaccine.
Under the agreement, GSK will provide manufacturing capacity at its Barnard Castle facility... Read More »
The Navy has awarded BAE Systems a four-year $42.5 million contract to provide shore-based landing systems integration (LSI) support services for instrument carrier and instrument landing systems (ICLS/ILS).
“For several decades, we have been responsible for integrating the Navy’s landing... Read More »
Over the next year, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) will lead a study of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness on health workers, thanks to a $4.9 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Participants in what is being called the PREVENT (Preventing... Read More »
Even as the United States reels from a year under the thumb of COVID-19, a new analysis from the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, released this week, warns that without action, the nation remains dangerously vulnerable to another pandemic or biological threat.
The report, Biodefense in... Read More »
Moderna, a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, announced Monday that it has shipped the 100 millionth dose of its COVID-19 vaccine to the U.S. government.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 67 million doses of the... Read More »
Faced with an already mutating SARS-CoV-2 virus, the world has found itself needing to adapt its countermeasures -- and a team of scientists from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has responded with a new test capable of detecting even mutated strains.
The VaNGuard test, as it is... Read More »
A total of five national laboratories are now a part of the Accelerating Therapeutics for Opportunities in Medicine (ATOM) consortium, assisting public-private efforts to develop an artificial intelligence(AI)-driven drug discovery platform.
The latest labs to join this week were the U.S.... Read More »
Investigational SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody VIR-7831 was submitted for emergency use authorization (EUA) at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week by developers GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) and Vir Biotechnology, Inc.
Pitched as a treatment for mild to moderate cases of... Read More »
According to a new study from the Galveston National Laboratory, published last week in Nature Communications, combining monoclonal antibodies and the antiviral remdesivir can make for a potent defense against the lethal Marburg virus (MARV).
Conducted at the University of Texas Medical Branch... Read More »
The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is playing a major role in the fight against COVID-19 in the United States, deploying more than 300 units to assist vaccination efforts in 43 states, plus Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
“MRC units started training for COVID-19... Read More »
Moving quickly to tamp down concerns raised by the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) this week, AstraZeneca announced today that primary analysis of its AZD1222 COVID-19 vaccine’s phase three trial confirmed 76 percent efficacy against symptomatic cases.
“The primary analysis... Read More »
Cipla Therapeutics, and SIGA Technologies, Inc, announced Tuesday that they would be entering into a strategic partnership to deliver innovation and access to novel antibacterial drugs, particularly to fight biothreats.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), anti-microbial resistance... Read More »
Northrop Grumman Systems and Lockheed Martin have been awarded Department of Defense (DOD) contracts supporting the Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) program.
NGI is an advanced interceptor designed to protect against intercontinental ballistic missile attacks. The DOD would ensure the overall... Read More »
A recently released Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health report is calling on the United States to address COVID-19 health misinformation and disinformation.
The call for a national strategy stems from the findings in "National Priorities to Combat... Read More »
Topline results from a phase three trial of the Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. COVID-19 antibody treatment, REGEN-COV, are in, demonstrating 70 percent reductions in hospitalization or death and shortened symptom durations.
The results were not overly affected by dosage. Across three dosage... Read More »
Encouraged by its success against SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses in test-tube studies, Pfizer Inc. has launched a phase one study of healthy adults to determine if multiple ascending doses of an oral antiviral therapeutic could be effective against COVID-19.
PF-07321332 is a protease... Read More »
Department of Defense (DOD) officials have proceeded with transportable advanced nuclear microreactor prototype design initiatives through two contract options.
Teams led by BWXT Advanced Technologies, LLC, of Lynchburg, Va., and X-energy, LLC, of Greenbelt, Md., were selected from a preliminary... Read More »
The Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded $959,305 to the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory this week to create testing criteria for a COVID-19 digital contact tracing app.
The award was granted through the Silicon... Read More »
