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In what Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky called a great example for the larger pharmaceutical industry, the company has reached a deal with fellow pharmaceutical giant and oft-rival Merck that will unite the pair’s resources to produce Johnson & Johnson’s new COVID-19 vaccine.
Faced... Read More »
Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) awarded up to $18 million to GSK Biologicals and its affiliate GSK Vaccines Institute for Global Health (GVGH) to develop new vaccines for two different illnesses.
One is a vaccine for Group A streptococcus... Read More »
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has earmarked funding totaling nearly $33 million over four years for five University of California San Diego Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) projects.
The RADx initiative seeks to expedite the development, commercialization, and implementation of... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) recently partnered with LightDeck Diagnostics to create a six-minute SARS-CoV-2 antigen test usable without the need for a full diagnostic laboratory.
This point of care test could be used for on-site screening of suspected... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization Monday for the Quidel QuickVue At-Home COVID-19 Test.
An antigen test, QuickVue will allow users suspected of having COVID-19 by their healthcare provider within the first six days of symptom onset to quickly collect... Read More »
Lawmakers representing the Committee on Oversight and Reform and Committee on Homeland Security recently conducted joint hearings to examine potential actions after cybersecurity incidents impacting government and private sector networks.
The panels detailed the supply chain attacks targeting... Read More »
The United States will now benefit from the rollout of a third COVID-19 vaccine, following last week’s emergency use authorization (EUA) of the Janssen vaccine by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
That decision came in the wake of recommendations from an advisory panel known as the... Read More »
A new report from Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security found that emergency departments in New York City hospitals were overwhelmed and struggled to maintain conventional standards of care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, “Crisis Standards of Care: Lessons from New York City... Read More »
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is making changes to the Phase 3 trial of its Regen-COV treatment for outpatients with COVID-19.
The changes come at the recommendation of the Independent Data Monitoring Committee (IDMC), which said to no longer use a placebo group in the trial. IDMC found clear... Read More »
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech announced the beginning of an evaluation into the safety and immunogenicity of a third dose of their COVID-19 vaccine last week to study the effects of a booster vaccine against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants.
This will be offered to up to 144 participants from the phase... Read More »
The first 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine allocated to the COVAX Facility have been delivered to Ghana, with further deliveries expected to reach Cote d’Ivoire later this week.
It marks the beginning of a global rollout long in the planning and the first COVAX vaccine... Read More »
According to a new study from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), at least a few months of protection may be granted against reinfection to those with SARS-CoV-2.
As part of the National Institutes of Health, NCI worked with healthcare data analytics companies HealthVerity and Aetion, Inc. and... Read More »
The Navy and Air Force have awarded Lockheed Martin a $414 million contract for Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) production.
The agreement represents the largest LRASM production pact in the program's history. The combined Lot 4/5 contract continues production of the air-launched variant of... Read More »
A group of lawmakers recently forwarded correspondence to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, seeking insight regarding the company’s alleged role in knowingly allowing extremist content and groups growth on its platform.
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Oversight... Read More »
A Phase 1B clinical trial of Lassa fever vaccine INO-4500, developed by INOVIO, began dosing its first patient this week in Ghana.
The vaccine is a first on several fronts: the first candidate for Lassa fever to begin human trials and the first to have trials conducted in West Africa, where the... Read More »
A pair of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) developed by Regeneron have shown promising signs against the coronavirus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in a phase one clinical trial that marked the first such test conducted on people.
In all, the National Institute of Allergy and... Read More »
Specialty vaccine company Valneva has initiated a Phase 3 study for its single-shot chikungunya vaccine candidate, VLA1553.
VLA1553 is the only chikungunya vaccine candidate in Phase 3 clinical trials. Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral disease caused by the chikungunya virus (CHIKV).... Read More »
In an effort to meet global supply demands, Sanofi has agreed to support the manufacturing of a COVID-19 vaccine made by Janssen Pharmaceutical NV and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., both of which are part of Johnson & Johnson.
The Janssen candidate has been submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug... Read More »
Five COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers assured Congress Tuesday that they are closely watching the emergence of new variants of COVID-19 and are optimistic the two vaccines currently approved in the United States and a third poised for approval will treat those new variants that have emerged in the... Read More »
Lauretta AI, LLC, a start-up based in Arlington, Mass., has secured a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) phase one funding award of $199,950 to aid the development of self-screening Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints.
The initiative is supported through the DHS's Science... Read More »
Following positive results from preclinical testing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham last year, the Altimmune Inc. COVID-19 vaccine candidate AdCOVID is set to start a phase one clinical trial this week.
Efforts will begin with patient enrollment, now that the U.S. Food and Drug... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Luminex Corporation announced a collaboration on advanced development support of a single test to rapidly detect and differentiate between COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Prevalent pathogens all,... Read More »
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers are working to determine if, after a terrorist bombing, the bomb maker can be identified by skin proteins left on bomb components.
As a means of conducting the research, personnel from LLNL's Weapons Complex Integration (WCI) and Global... Read More »
In tests conducted by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), a new screening technology from Smiths Detection broke new ground in efforts to find and contain COVID-19: the capability to detect the virus SARS-CoV-2 in the air.
The BioFlesh Biological... Read More »
Building off a 2020 research and development agreement for coronavirus therapies, GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. announced a binding agreement this week to expand that collaboration into new therapies for flu and other respiratory viruses.
The pair will work together on... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Defense awarded a $1.4 million grant to scientists at West Virginia University (WVU) to develop therapeutics to treat infections prone to antibiotic resistance.
Mariette Barbier of the WVU School of Medicine will lead the research effort. Barbier and her team will present... Read More »
Army officials said Lockheed Martin is slated to begin supporting formal integration and testing of the branch's combat vehicle protection system to keep soldiers safer and more secure from threats.
Lockheed Martin would provide its Modular Active Protection System (MAPS) base kit, which... Read More »
Following the World Health Organization (WHO) emergency use listing of the AstraZeneca/University of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine this week, the COVAX initiative announced it intends the bulk of the first deliveries to occur in March.
COVAX is finalizing the first and second quarter allocations of... Read More »
A new report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security addresses the status of SARS-CoV-2 surveillance, sequencing, and the three emerging variant strains, establishing four policy recommendations to identify and manage them.
“Staying Ahead of the Variants: Policy Recommendations to... Read More »
A joint document recently released by the Nuclear Innovation Alliance (NIA) and Partnership for Global Security (PGS) defines a comprehensive domestic strategy to advance nuclear power development.
“Clean energy technologies, including advanced nuclear energy, are essential to meet mid-century... Read More »
Another four COVID-19 therapeutics for those with mild to moderate symptoms moved further up the pipeline this week, with the announcement of enrollment for Phase 2/3 testing in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) ACTIV-2 trial.
ACTIV, or the Accelerating COVID-19... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) formally approved emergency authorization for AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, allowing two versions of it to be distributed through the global COVAX program.
AstraZeneca-SKBio is producing the two vaccines in the Republic of Korea and the Serum Institute of... Read More »
BAE Systems has been awarded a $184 million contract option via the Marine Corps, covering production, fielding, and support costs for the Amphibious Combat Vehicles personnel carrier (ACV-P) variant.
The firm was awarded the initial full-rate production contract option in December for the... Read More »
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security introduced a new website last week known as the COVID-19 Testing Toolkit to provide essential information on available tests, testing services, how they work, and how accurate they are for any interested organizations.
“For a lot of organizations,... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. on Friday announced a new contract development and manufacturing company (CDMO) agreement with Canadian-based Providence Therapeutics, which is producing a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine similar to the Moderna Inc. and Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus shots already being... Read More »
