Research
The results of Phase 3 clinical trials of COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca in the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Africa were released this week in The Lancet, proving the vaccine to be safe and effective, including preventing any severe cases for at least 22 days after the first dose.
All told,... Read More »
An experimental, intranasal influenza vaccine developed by Emergent Biosolutions, Inc. passed a years-long test this week, showcasing strong immune responses among a small group of volunteers in a phase one study.
The results, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, showed that after... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) will invest $268,000 to develop standards for Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems used by public safety agencies.
The research project will seek to... Read More »
The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) has been meeting with subscribers in the Nashville area and some surrounding areas that experienced outages after a Nashville bombing.
The Dec. 25, 2020 bombing of a Nashville AT&T building did not impact FirstNet network infrastructure... Read More »
In its first-ever global assessment of country health information systems, released this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that while two-thirds of low-income countries have some form of system to report causes of death, there is a widespread need for improvement.
This has been... Read More »
Visby Medical, Inc. was awarded a Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) this week that will allow it to expand efforts surrounding the Visby Personal PCR Test, a COVID-19 test seeking to add the capability to distinguish between influenza cases.
The test is meant to be... Read More »
Avails Medical, a Menlo Park, California diagnostics company, has secured an award worth up to $2.5 million from CARB-X to develop an electronic antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) device.
The innovation would expedite healthcare providers’ ability to determine the most effective... Read More »
With fears growing over mutated strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that have spread from the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil, Innova Medical Group, Inc. provided some relief this week with confirmation that its antigen test kits are capable of identifying all three.
"As these dangerous... Read More »
Novartis signed an agreement with Pfizer-BioNTech to leverage its manufacturing capacity and capabilities to support the production of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.
Through this agreement, Novartis will use its aseptic manufacturing facilities at its site in Stein, Switzerland. Through... Read More »
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a series of recommendations regarding the federal COVID-19 response via the CARES Act, focusing on critical gaps and plans to address the gaps.
The GAO indicated the agency's recommendation concerning the importance of clear and... Read More »
A new forecast from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington establishes the danger of two new variants of COVID-19, warning of the possibility of a surge of deaths later this year, even despite the vaccine rollout.
According to the report, B.1.351 -- the... Read More »
Those residents of the European Union 18 years or older will now be able to get AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to prevent COVID-19, following a conditional marketing authorization granted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The approval will allow AstraZeneca to begin working with the EU... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, or CEPI, is awarding up to $140 million in funding to research institutions for clinical data on COVID-19 vaccines.
This initiative aims to fill in existing clinical research and development gaps to expand access to COVID-19 vaccines. The... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently joined Cactus League officials and affiliates in an exercise designed to review pre-incident preparedness measures and response plans.
For the second consecutive year, the tabletop exercise... Read More »
Novavax, Inc. demonstrated a strong showing of its COVID-19 vaccine last week, posting an 89.3 percent efficacy in a United Kingdom-based phase three trial, conducted in partnership with the UK government’s Vaccines Taskforce.
Notably, this vaccine was also pitted against variants of the... Read More »
The results of the phase three ENSEMBLE clinical trial have shown that Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot Janssen COVID-19 vaccine candidate is 66 percent effective overall at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 cases 28 days after vaccination.
The study also showed that the vaccine... Read More »
Combatting Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CARB-X) awarded $5.3 million to Lumen Bioscience to develop a new immunotherapy to prevent diarrheal diseases caused by two specific pathogens -- Campylobacter jejuni and enterotoxigenic E. coli.
Diarrheal diseases are intestinal infections caused by... Read More »
The RTS,S/AS01E malaria vaccine is the focus of a new product transfer agreement between GSK, PATH, and Bharat Biotech (BBIL), which will see manufacturing, supply, and rights split between the three entities.
Under the arrangement, manufacturing of the RTS,S antigen and licensing rights to the... Read More »
A new agreement between Sanofi and BioNTech grants the latter access to Sanofi’s infrastructure to aid manufacturing of the COVID-19 vaccine BioNTech has co-developed with Pfizer, granting them the ability to make more than 125 million doses for Europe from summer on.
“Although vaccination... Read More »
Specialty vaccine company Valneva and Instituto Butantan signed an agreement to develop Valneva’s single-shot chikungunya vaccine, VLA1553, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
As part of the collaboration, Valneva will transfer its chikungunya vaccine technology to Instituto Butantan,... Read More »
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently indicated officers detected twice as many firearms per million passengers screened at airport security checkpoints nationwide in 2020 compared to 2019.
“I commend our officers for their commitment to TSA’s security mission by... Read More »
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Lyme disease cases are growing in the United States, which released a new report showing annual cases are 10 times higher than what they were reported in 2018.
Some 476,000 people are now being diagnosed and treated for Lyme... Read More »
In new data released by Eli Lilly and Company, a cocktail of neutralizing antibodies bamlanivimab and etesevimab reduced COVID-19 related hospitalizations and deaths by 70 percent among more than 1,000 high-risk patients.
According to the report, which was based on the BLAZE-1 phase three... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has announced a $36.5 million funding opportunity for a new DHS Center of Excellence (COE).
The COE's focus would be Engineering Secure Environments from Targeted Attacks (ESE). DHS is soliciting center lead... Read More »
Although well-tolerated, Merck’s two COVID-19 vaccine candidates -- V590 and V591 -- have been discontinued due to immune responses well below those provided by natural infection or other vaccines.
“We are grateful to our collaborators who worked with us on these vaccine candidates and to... Read More »
A recent report from the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science finds that prescription use of opioids has fallen 60 percent since its peak in 2011.
Changes in clinical use, regulatory and reimbursement policies, and progressively more restrictive legislation have led to the reduced use, the... Read More »
The development and deployment of an effective vaccine for COVID-19 could be the turning point in the fight against the deadly pandemic, and companies involved in the process must make specific business and public health considerations simultaneously to help ensure a successful outcome, experts... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions and Humanigen have signed a contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services agreement to accelerate the manufacturing of the drug lenzilumab.
Lenzilumab is an anti-human granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) monoclonal antibody designed to prevent... Read More »
In a manuscript posted to a preprint server, Moderna Inc. addressed Monday the results of in vitro neutralization studies of sera from people vaccinated against emerging strains of SARS-CoV-2, which produced lesser, though still protective, results.
Specifically, the variants being fretted over... Read More »
COVAX announced last week that a new purchase agreement with Pfizer-BioNTech will secure up to 40 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for rollout, offering the potential to deliver at least 2 billion doses of vaccines, equitably, by year’s end.
“Today marks another milestone for COVAX:... Read More »
The Oklahoma Pandemic Center for Innovation and Excellence (OPCIE) officially opened in Stillwater, Okla., this week, presenting a new lab, genetic biorepository, and science lab to address public health concerns.
The facility is meant to serve as a frontline of defense against future... Read More »
Chalmers University of Technology researchers have determined that significant genetic transfer between bacteria in our ecosystems and humans may be linked to pathogenic bacteria in humans developing resistance to antibiotics.
"In recent years, we've seen that resistance genes spread to human... Read More »
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis has determined Department of Defense (DOD) efforts to develop a jam-resistant GPS capability for the military called M-code has been delayed, causing ripple effects.
Per the GAO, modernized satellites are in space, but receiver equipment needed... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will award nearly $20 million in funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act to increase data sharing between health information exchanges and immunization information systems.
“These CARES Act funds will... Read More »
ConserV Bioscience Limited (CBL) and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) agreed to collaborate this week in creating a universal coronavirus vaccine capable of protecting against coronavirus pathogens of human and animal origin, as well as new mutations, researchers said.
CBL, a... Read More »
