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With the introduction of the Tracking Pathogens Act (S. 3534) this week, U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) proposed the institution of national genomic sequence-based surveillance as a means of charting circulating pathogens, transmission patterns, and... Read More »
In a letter written to the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), a bipartisan collection of senators and representatives last week urged continued pursuit of artificial intelligence development, albeit with special care to ethics and... Read More »
Results of a multinational, Phase 3 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)-funded trial last week showed that combining remdesivir with anti-coronavirus hyperimmune intravenous immunoglobulin (HIVIG) fails to do more for COVID-19 hospitalized adults than remdesivir... Read More »
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a lawsuit to block Lockheed Martin Corporation from the vertical acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc to prevent critical market consolidation.
Regulators argued the $4.4 billion acquisition effort would remove the last independent U.S.... Read More »
Drawing from a $200 million program meant to stimulate the development of vaccines with broad betacoronavirus protection, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced a $16.9 million award this week for development efforts by BioNet.
BioNet, a French-Thai vaccine... Read More »
In a move that prompted backlash from Florida in particular, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week announced revised and restricted authorizations of bamlanivimab/etesevimab and REGEN-COV for COVID-19 treatment.
While the two had been available before this, Dr. Patrizia... Read More »
Formerly only used for patients hospitalized with COVID-19, the Gilead Sciences Inc. drug veklury – also known as remdesivir – was expanded by order of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week to include treatment for mild to moderate cases as well.
Both non-hospitalized adults... Read More »
Backed by various law enforcement organizations and bipartisan appeal, U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and John Rutherford (R-FL) – together with 36 cosponsors – introduced the Invest to Protect Act of 2022 last week to support local police.
The House bill seeks critical investments into... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations’ (CEPI) 100 Days Mission to reduce the vaccine development timeline received a $300 million investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome.
While a fraction of the organization’s overall fundraising goal of $3.5 billion,... Read More »
A new partnership between governmental, military, and academic scientists seeks to collaboratively develop a vaccine over the next five years capable of protecting against tularemia, melioidosis, and plague from a single source.
Aided by a $10 million grant for the Defense Threat Reduction... Read More »
In the latest effort to get ahead of future medical equipment shortages, U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) announced plans for the Medical and Health Stockpile Accountability Act last week, proposing a new tracking system and data sharing guidelines, and more.
While building greater resilience... Read More »
Following requests from U.S. authorities, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested members of the REvil ransomware gang and shut their operations, which in the last few years have struck American ventures such as the Colonial Pipeline, JBS Foods, and Kaseya.
The Russian-based group... Read More »
With the introduction of the House version of the Strengthening Supply Chains for Servicemembers and Security Act (H.R. 6374), U.S. Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) and Peter Meier (R-MI) this week sought to bolster cut overreliance on foreign pharmaceuticals and strengthen the domestic supply... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) this week introduced a bipartisan bill that would increase the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) collaboration efforts surrounding research and development of countermeasures for pathogens with pandemic potential.
“Two years... Read More »
In response to the Chinese government's refusal to allow a comprehensive investigation into the origins of COVID-19, a collection of Republican senators introduced the Coronavirus Origin Validation, Investigation and Determination (COVID) Act this week.
The bill seeks to authorize sanctions... Read More »
According to GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) and Vir Biotechnology, Inc., the United States government this week agreed to purchase another 600,000 doses of the COVID-19 antibody treatment sotrovimab, which will be distributed in this first quarter of 2022.
The arrangement stems from an amendment to... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) joined U.S. Reps. Brian Higgins (D-NY) and Chris Jacobs (R-NY) in urging the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to keep the U.S.-Canada border open for vaccinated individuals.
Citing the economic livelihoods of New York businesses, as well as supply chain... Read More »
Calling attention to human trafficking, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Blue Campaign announced that Jan. 11, 2022, will be Wear Blue Day and encouraged supporters to join in and speak out.
“Human trafficking is one of the most... Read More »
In response to hacker-discovered vulnerabilities in the widely used Java-based logging package Log4j, U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) convened a committee briefing with top federal cybersecurity officials this week to address the issue’s mitigation.
The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs... Read More »
Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY) recently detailed the application process for Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grants, noting the effort seeks to bolster local fire department staffing.
Higgins said the application period is now open, and the deadline is Feb. 4, 2022, before 5... Read More »
In a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, U.S. Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) requested explanations for the nation’s COVID-19 testing shortages amid rising omicron variant infection cases.
Specifically, they blasted the Biden... Read More »
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) released news from the South African Phase 3b Sisonke study of its COVID-19 booster vaccine, which demonstrated 85 percent effectiveness against COVID-19 induced hospitalization, even in a region dominated by the omicron variant.
The results were preliminary, conducted by... Read More »
Following an accelerated review process, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week approved two new over-the-counter COVID-19 tests in a two-month turnaround time, opening the market to millions of new Roche and Siemens tests.
"Increasing Americans' access to easy-to-use, reliable... Read More »
U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Victoria Spartz (R-IN), and Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) introduced new legislation that seeks a new review process for the nation’s supply chain to screen out vulnerabilities and exploits for national adversaries.
“The unfolding global... Read More »
The Independent Allocation of Vaccines Group (IAVG), a manager of needs-based allocations for the global COVAX initiative, criticized rich nations last week for hoarding COVID-19 vaccines and issued steps to achieve a new goal of 70 percent immunization coverage by mid-2022.
“As the overall... Read More »
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) bestowed emergency use authorization (EUA) to Roche’s COVID-19 at-home test last week, expanding over-the-counter options for those concerned about SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.
As a result, the test will now be available for self-use by... Read More »
The United States authorized the first two pill-based treatments for COVID-19 last week, with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granting emergency use authorization to both Pfizer Inc.’s paxlovid and Merck & Co. Inc.’s molnupiravir.
Taking the honor of first approval was paxlovid.... Read More »
The Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness will award up to $50 million in expanded support to SK bioscience as the company pursues a variant-proof vaccine candidate for sarbecoviruses, a group of viruses from which SARS-CoV-2 emerged.
“The rapid spread of the Omicron variant serves as a stark... Read More »
In preliminary showings, a third dose of Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine increased antibody levels against the Omicron variant currently sweeping the world, painting the company’s strategy forward even as a years-long pandemic continues to evolve.
The report followed news that omicron, which... Read More »
California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled an enhanced public safety plan this week that looks to combat and prevent crime statewide.
The Real Public Safety Plan, in conjunction with local law enforcement, focuses on improving law enforcement response, ensuring prosecutors hold perpetrators... Read More »
With a growing body of evidence that novel coronaviruses will continue to infect animals to afflict humans anew, top scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have called for collaboration in pursuit of a universal coronavirus vaccine.
Drs. Anthony Fauci, Jeffery Taubenberger, and... Read More »
A growing, immediate need exists to accelerate global coronavirus vaccination efforts to help ensure America’s continued economic recovery, experts testified during a Dec. 14 hearing held by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.
To date, nearly eight billion coronavirus... Read More »
With recommendations from an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) and positive antibody and safety showings from preliminary studies, Sanofi and GSK announced this week that their COVID-19 vaccine booster candidate will continue its Phase 3 trial.
So far, the DSMB has identified no... Read More »
With as many as 40 percent of medical device manufacturing facilities refusing to submit records when asked by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-IL) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have proposed a bill that would encourage compliance.
The requests were made between... Read More »
Results came in this week from a Phase 2/3 trial of Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 oral antiviral treatment, and the data showed a drug capable of cutting risks of hospitalization or death by 89 percent among high-risk adults, when given within a few days of their first symptoms.
The final data from... Read More »
