Emerging Infectious Diseases
According to new research from National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists at the Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the oral antiviral drug TEMPOL could limit SARS-CoV-2 infection capabilities.
Though still considered experimental, the drug’s... Read More »
Biotech company Moderna announced Tuesday that they had entered into an agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific to fill/finish the sterile manufacturing and packaging of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Under the agreement, Thermo Fishers’ facility in Greenville, N.C., will be used for aseptic... Read More »
With $4.2 million in funding from the Henry Jackson Foundation and a new partnership with the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC), Centivax Inc. intends to pursue phase one clinical development of Centi-B9, a broad-spectrum injectable for treating SARS-CoV-2.
Unlike other vaccines and... Read More »
The leaders of the international organizations for financing, health, and trade are urging government leaders to finance a new $50 billion roadmap to help end the pandemic and spur global economic recovery.
Leaders of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank Group, World Health Organization,... Read More »
Basel, Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company BioVersys has secured a $4.35 million funding allotment from CARB-X to develop new antibiotics to treat life-threatening infections caused by ESKAPE pathogens.
The pathogens are identified as bacteria that have developed resistance to most current,... Read More »
Following its development by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) began a human, phase one clinical trial to determine the safety and immunogenicity of a nanoparticle-based, universal influenza... Read More »
U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Conor Lamb (D-PA) sought legislative action on foreign nations’ health efforts last week, introducing the Never Again International Outbreak Prevention Act to establish new monitoring and reporting mandates, sanctions, and an investigation of the World... Read More »
After months of operating under the ongoing pandemic, Moderna, Inc. announced this week that it has initiated the Biologics License Application (BLA) process with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to gain full approval of its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
This approval would make... Read More »
President Joe Biden’s first budget proposal would authorize the largest funding increase in nearly two decades for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), going above and beyond funding the agency’s disease-focused work at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services... Read More »
Renco Corporation has secured a $13.1 million contract via the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to bolster domestic nitrile gloves production.
Under the agreement, the initiative enables Renco to increase the production capacity of nitrile gloves... Read More »
Another COVID-19 vaccine may soon be on the way: Sanofi and GSK began enrollment for a phase three, global clinical study of their adjuvanted recombinant-protein vaccine candidate, with the anticipation it could be approved by the end of the year.
Approval will, of course, depend on results, and... Read More »
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the COVID-19 pandemic situation is stabilizing in nations with advanced vaccination programs, but it is surging in other, less equipped areas, demanding action lest the future become a repeat of present failures.
WHO urges the distribution of 2... Read More »
A new collaborative effort between Battelle, a science and technology research and development firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio; the Ohio State University; and Northwestern University hopes to combat the “infodemic” of false and misleading information online surrounding the COVID-19... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) awarded $7.1 million grant funding to an Oxford University study assessing if COVID-19 vaccine regimens can be mixed.
These funds will complement $3 million of funding already granted from the U.K. government and support from the... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) added another tool to the fight against COVID-19 this week, granting emergency use authorization (EUA) to the monoclonal antibody therapy sotrovimab for use against mild to moderate COVID-19 cases in those 12 years and older.
The EUA was granted to... Read More »
The nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) | bio virtually convened an interdisciplinary group of experts and world leaders earlier this month to push for a global organization to reduce biotechnology risks, promote biosecurity and strengthen international oversight of life sciences... Read More »
Thanks to a $400,000 grant from The Rockefeller Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security will document, evaluate and spread information on large-scale health successes among the COVID-19 response in low and middle-income nations over the past year.
This information will be used... Read More »
Academia and the private sector must be in a collaborative relationship with the United States government to invest in the research and development of technologies that will prevent a future pandemic, experts said on Wednesday during a webinar hosted by the Capitol Hill Steering Committee on... Read More »
Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) officials said the organization has expanded its partnership with SK bioscience to develop a vaccine to combat SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern.
The agreement calls for CEPI to earmark up to $173.4 million for SK bioscience's to COVID-19... Read More »
The AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the United States Footwear Manufacturers Association are among 20 union and stakeholder organizations supporting the Make PPE in America Act.
The unions and stakeholder organizations recently forwarded correspondence to Majority... Read More »
Plans are underway to submit the Moderna, Inc. COVID-19 vaccine to regulators in early June to expand its use, following positive results from a Phase 2/3 study that distributed the vaccine among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years old.
The vaccine, known as mRNA-1273, met its primary immunogenicity... Read More »
As part of a new Memorandum of Understanding between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Swiss Confederation, the first facility in the WHO BioHub System was agreed to this week.
Such facilities, first announced in November 2020, will serve as centers for reception, sequencing, storage,... Read More »
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas written last week, Republican House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders requested two classified briefings on the origins of COVID-19 and any work conducted therein.
“[W]e strongly support a comprehensive investigation into the... Read More »
Under a new agreement announced last week, Samsung Biologics will bolster the global supply of mRNA-1273, Moderna, Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine, by providing large-scale, commercial fill-finish manufacturing.
Technology transfer began upon execution of the deal so that Samsung Biologics could... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) made a major change at the top last week, with the appointment of former Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Dr. Nicole Lurie as its United States director.
Lurie has already been guiding CEPI’s emergency response... Read More »
With the reintroduction of the Medical Supplies for Pandemics Act in the Senate last week, U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) sought to more tightly link the federal government and medical product distributors to strengthen domestic manufacturing and refill the Strategic... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) recently introduced a legislative amendment in support of sharing excess COVID-19 vaccines with countries in need.
The Endless Frontier Act amendment seeks to spur U.S. Department of State action in conjunction with the coordination Department... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) launched a new survey this week to assess the vaccine manufacturing capacity and capabilities of Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, to better inform ahead of future epidemics.
“While incredible efforts were... Read More »
In the wake of a pandemic response that had been hobbled initially by a lack of domestic medical supplies and an overreliance on foreign supply chains, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-MI) held an oversight hearing with supply chain,... Read More »
Bavarian Nordic A/S and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced this week that they will support World Health Organization (WHO) led efforts to contain the spread of Ebola in West Africa through the donation of up to 200,000 doses of J&J’s vaccine regimen.
The partnership owes to the fact that... Read More »
The top two executives of Emergent BioSolutions Inc. on Wednesday promised to provide additional documentation requested by congressional lawmakers who are investigating the Maryland-based biopharmaceutical company’s failure to manufacture usable coronavirus vaccines under a contract with the... Read More »
A Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.-created drug cocktail of casirivimab with imdevimab, REGEN-COV, was recently shown to provide a 70 percent reduced risk of hospitalization or death and shortened symptom duration in non-hospitalized patients afflicted with COVID-19.
The drug cocktail is meant... Read More »
Across all adult age groups, going as high as 95 years old, a phase two trial of the Sanofi and GSK adjuvanted recombinant COVID-19 vaccine candidate has demonstrated high antibody responses and no safety concerns, according to interim data released this week.
Strong immune responses included a... Read More »
The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) recently awarded a $100,000 contract to Charles River Analytics for the creation of a means to assemble information from global trade networks and pharmaceutical drug data and present it in a way that would allow quick identification of problems in the supply... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) are encouraging the Biden administration to devise a plan enabling any surplus COVID-19 vaccine to be forwarded to Latin America and the Caribbean.
The legislators sent correspondence to President Joe Biden regarding the... Read More »
