Emerging Infectious Diseases
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 »
U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and David McKinley (R-WV) introduced a bill to address shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing supplies.
The Protecting Providers Everywhere (PPE) in America Act would boost domestic PPE and testing supply production. It would also promote a... Read More »
U.S. Chamber of Commerce officials said a recently launched digital resource center seeks to aid business leaders and associations in wholly navigating varied COVID-19 vaccine questions.
Authorities noted the COVID-19 Vaccines Digital Resource Center contains state-specific information, guidance... 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 »
The United States Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Defense (DoD) will purchase another 100 million doses each of the COVID-19 vaccines offered by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. by the end of July.
President Joe Biden announced the deals last week, in a speech delivered at the... 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 »
U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) introduced legislation to address shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing supplies.
The Protecting Providers Everywhere (PPE) in America Act would boost domestic PPE and testing supply production. It would also... Read More »
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) reintroduced Wednesday the Set Testing and Objectives Plan (STOP) COVID-19 Act, which he said would address state COVID-19 vaccine distribution, reporting, and transparency standards.
The bill would also create a program for cities and counties to increase testing, contact... Read More »
New legislation from U.S. Sens. Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) attempts to guarantee maximized use of the Defense Production Act (DPA) during emergency response and to increase domestic production of critical medical supplies.
The Public Health Emergency (PHE) Production Act,... Read More »
Through a letter of intent released this week, AstraZeneca and IDT Biologika pledged to increase COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing in Europe and guarantee long-term supply capacity.
While the details are still up in the air, both companies also intend to invest in drug substance capacity.... Read More »
Under a new emergency use authorization (EUA) issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the monoclonal antibodies bamlanivimab and etesevimab can be used together for the treatment of mild to moderate cases of COVID-19.
Specifically, they can be used by adults and pediatric... Read More »
AppCensus, a start-up from El Cerrito, Calif., won a $198,600 award from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) to develop testing and validation services for digital contact tracing applications.
The phase 1 award was made under S&T’s... Read More »
The National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) this week began enrolling participants for an international phase three clinical trial of AZD7442, an antibody combination developed by AstraZeneca to treat those hospitalized with COVID-19.
The trial is part of ACTIV-3, a... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. on Monday hosted Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan at the multinational biopharmaceutical company’s East Baltimore, Md., Bayview facility where the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine candidate is being manufactured.
Emergent’s Bayview facility, which is designated by... Read More »
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has set aside approximately $1.98 billion to states, tribes, territories as well as Washington D.C., for community vaccination centers.
Currently, there are 175 federally supported vaccine centers operational across the country. The federal... Read More »
The former Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Clinton administration, Donna Shalala, has been appointed to the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense.
Shalala had been a founding member of the commission, established in 2014. She left two years ago to serve in the Congress from Florida... Read More »
Where and when COVID-19 transmission rates are high, a new study published in The Lancet Public Health journal last week asserts that weekly testing and two week isolation periods for positive cases remain the most cost-effective ways to control spread.
This will remain the case until vaccines... Read More »
GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) and CureVac N.V. announced a €150 million ($180,639,000) collaboration last week focused on developing mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 and its emerging variants.
Their goal is a multi-valent candidate capable of fighting COVID and its iterations at the same time. This... Read More »
A bill was introduced in Congress last week that would establish a federal contact tracing workforce.
The Coronavirus Containment Corps Act would fill a need for more contact tracing to combat the COVID-19 virus and its variants. It would help by providing federal funding for this workforce... Read More »
New legislation introduced in both chambers of Congress last week -- the Community Immunity During COVID-19 Act -- proposes support for vaccination efforts and to reverse drops in vaccination rates through a mix of funding for local initiatives and access to primary care services.
The effort is... Read More »
Following efficacy and safety data reports released earlier, Johnson & Johnson announced today that Janssen Biotech, Inc. -- J&J’s pharmaceutical arm -- has applied for Emergency Use Authorization from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) outlined his key priorities as the new chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Peter said he would continue to focus on bolstering the federal government’s Coronavirus pandemic response, strengthening national security, including... Read More »
U.S. Rep. John Katko (R-NY) is seeking answers from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on its plan to distribute COVID-19 vaccines among its frontline law enforcement workers.
Katko, ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, expressed concerns about the handling of... Read More »
World Health Organization (WHO) officials have joined UNICEF, the
Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, and the Vaccine Alliance in touting COVAX’s first COVID-19 vaccine interim distribution forecast.
Building on the publication of the 2021 COVAX global and regional... Read More »
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) introduced Wednesday a House Resolution seeking to establish a new National Institutes of Health unit known as The National Institute of Viral Diseases.
"I am introducing this resolution to build upon our federal government’s investment in scientific research and to... Read More »
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 »
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) introduced legislation to publicly manufacture personal protective equipment, prescription drugs, and other medical supplies necessary to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Pandemic Emergency Manufacturing Act of 2021 authorizes the... 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 »
Members of the Democrat-controlled U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee argued Wednesday the Trump administration’s actions on COVID-19 were inadequate to bring the pandemic under control and only the massive expenditure being called for by President Joe Biden will be enough to defeat the... Read More »
The UK Government has ordered 40 million more doses of Valneva’s adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine candidate for supply in 2022.
This increases the total doses of the Valneva vaccine ordered by the UK Government to 100 million. Plus, the UK Government retains options for possibly a further 90... 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 »
The United States Departments of Defense (DoD) and Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded $231.8 million to Ellume USA LLC this week to expand the domestic production capacity of its COVID-19 Home Test.
These funds will increase Ellume’s U.S. production capacity by 640,000 tests per day by... 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 »
