Research
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reissued an emergency use authorization (EUA) to Quest Diagnostics for its COVID-19 test.
The Quest test is the first COVID-19 diagnostic test to be authorized for use with pooled samples containing up to four individual swab specimens collected under... Read More »
Under an agreement with Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, the United Kingdom will receive 30 million doses of their BNT162 mRNA-based vaccine candidate for SARS-CoV-2, expected to be delivered over the next year.
While the drug -- four vaccine candidates operating under the broader BNT162 category... Read More »
Recently released study findings published in The Lancet Public Health journal has determined contact tracing speed strategies to be essential to slowing COVID-19 transmission.
Contact tracing involves tracking down all of the people who have been in contact with an infected individual so they... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is calling on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and implement a COVID-19 wastewater surveillance program.
Testing wastewater has been proven as a successful method to detect viruses and... Read More »
Looking to inform decision making during a pandemic, COVID-Local has created a policy mapping tool and database for communities, giving them a way to measure the effects of their COVID-19-related actions against specific policies.
COVID Analysis and Mapping of Policies is meant to identify... Read More »
Sandia National Laboratories is turning to machine learning to assist COVID-19 researchers in combing through existing coronavirus studies and data.
Through a mix of algorithms, analytics, and data mining, Sandia wants to make it easy for scientists to find the data they need right at their... Read More »
Moderna, Inc. expects to begin a 30,000 participant phase 3 study of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate later this month, following the publication of an interim phase 1 analysis that demonstrated a generally safe and well-tolerated reaction among a small group of healthy adults.
The results,... Read More »
Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Diana DeGette (D-CO) seek answers from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on its process to determine the accuracy of COVID-19 diagnostic and serological tests.
“Public health experts have consistently called for increased access to... Read More »
The University of Queensland’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate reached a milestone as the first participants were enrolled in its Phase 1 clinical trial.
The university’s vaccine is the seventh that is part of the portfolio of vaccines funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will invest $27.1 million into the purchase of a foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine for the National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank.
The purchase would give the government the means to respond to outbreaks of the disease among... Read More »
The U.S. Air Force is participating in a program launched by the Department of Defense to collect convalescent plasma from COVID-19 patients to be used as a possible treatment for the virus.
“We plan to collect more than 8,000 units of plasma from individuals who have recovered from... Read More »
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel along the California border with Mexico recently reported that, in June, the agency seized 43,000 pounds of narcotics valued at nearly $92 million.
Officers at the six land ports of entry were able to foil numerous attempts to smuggle 34,685 pounds... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Sichuan Clover Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. expanded their partnership last week to guarantee the rapid development and manufacturing of the company’s protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
Known as S-Trimer, the vaccine is based on... Read More »
Sandia National Laboratories personnel is offering design specifications for an outdoor shelter shielding healthcare workers conducting COVID-19 testing on its licensing and technology transfer website.
The free design and instruction manual would yield a low-cost, drive-up outdoor shelter. The... Read More »
Streamlining processes this week, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) created a new clinical trials network to gather thousands of volunteers together for testing of various investigational vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for use against COVID-19.
NIAID -- a part... Read More »
The George Washington University has been selected by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) to aid the effort focusing on security technology transition (STT).
The university would establish a new Center of Excellence (COE) delivering a pilot Master... Read More »
Smiths Detection -- a leader in threat detection and screening technologies for aviation, ports, and borders, urban security and defense -- has launched new algorithms that enhance its HI-SCAN 10080 XCT explosive-detection system (EDS) scanner’s detection capabilities.
Smiths iCMORE detection... Read More »
Expanding on an existing partnership, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Sonica Health announced last week that they will work together to create a wearable patch capable of monitoring for COVID-19 infections.
The device is meant for high-risk clinical... Read More »
The Homeland Security Committee has released a report assessing the government’s coronavirus oversight response, detailing the Committee’s actions amid the pandemic.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, recently released a majority staff report... Read More »
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) collaboration has resulted in automated mobile application (app) software testing procedures.
Officials said the partnership stems from efforts to ensure the... Read More »
Scientists did not anticipate the initial threat of SARS-CoV-2, but what if they could have.
In a commentary released this month by Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, society could be prepared for the next pandemic through a medical... Read More »
A new platform, SolaVAX, aims to help inactivate the SARS-CoV-2 virus -- the virus which causes COVID-19 -- in patients, and its progress will be a joint project of its creators at Colorado State University and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
SolaVAX was... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI, signed an agreement with Stevanato Group to supply glass vials to hold vaccine for the COVID-19 virus once it is developed.
Stevanato, based in Italy, will supply 100 million Type 1 Borosilicate glass vials to hold up to 2 billion... Read More »
The Department of Defense (DoD) recently awarded a $59 million contract to Alion Science and Technology to implement weapons systems research and development.
The scope of work would aid the Navy Warfare Development Command (NWDC) Red Cell, information operations cell, and electromagnetic... Read More »
An existing partnership between vaccine company Sanofi Pasteur and clinical-stage mRNA therapeutics company Translate Bio expanded this week to include development of mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases.
The companies originally began collaborating in 2018. Now, their union will focus on... Read More »
Clover Biopharmaceuticals began phase 1 clinical trials in Perth, Australia, on its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, which is supported by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
CEPI has provided up to $3.5 million for Clover to support the preparation and initiation of a trial... Read More »
Both INOVIO’s CELLECTRA 3PSP smart device and CELLECTRA 2000 devices will benefit from a $71 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), in the hopes of scaling up DNA delivery devices for the company’s potential COVID-19 vaccine, INO-4800.
Both devices deliver INO-4800... Read More »
A public-private partnership between the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and MBio Diagnostics aims to create a COVID-19 serology test capable of providing results within five minutes.
The test is a point-of-care diagnostic that tests for human anti-SARS-CoV-2... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is seeking proposals from innovators on new technologies for first responders.
Industry, academia, laboratories, and others are invited to submit proposals related to four technology categories. One is Integrated... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) initiated a partnership with digital health developer Empatica last week that focuses on developing a wearable system and algorithm that can detect early signs of COVID-19 infection in individuals.
That system, known as Aura,... Read More »
Researchers at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) have developed a way for people to decontaminate personal protective equipment (PPE) at home.
DHS’s S&T researchers have found that programmable multicookers can be used to decontaminate masks,... Read More »
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Defense (DOD) officials said the agencies have partnered to expedite vial manufacturing capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through Operation Warp Speed, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), under the... Read More »
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) last week that called for efforts by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to guarantee it has enough responders for emergencies and can evaluate training properly, a call echoed... Read More »
The lack of a cohesive national plan for dealing with COVID-19 was once more brought to the fore last week with the release of a report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, which laid out a series of recommendations surrounding antibody studies.
These antibody studies --... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions revealed this week plans to expand its viral vector and gene therapy capabilities.
The company announced it will invest $75 million in its Canton, Mass., facility, which is focused on the contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) of drug substances for live viral... Read More »
