Emerging Infectious Diseases
With cases of coronavirus (2019-nCoV) now rooted in 25 countries and afflicting more than 24,000 people, the international community is attempting to fight back with a $675 million Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP).
While many nations have responded swiftly to the novel... Read More »
The U.S Food and Drug Administration licensed Audenz, an influenza vaccine designed to protect against the H5N1 avian influenza virus.
AUDENZ was developed by Seqirus with support from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) within the Office of the Assistant... Read More »
Research biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences announced last week that it has joined efforts to contain the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) through requested release of an experimental drug known as remdesivir.
Remdesivir is not yet licensed or approved anywhere in the world. However,... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is calling for actions to counter the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) this week, with a new vaccine-focused request for proposals, millions in funding additions, and new partnerships.
CEPI desires rapid development and... Read More »
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) has offered recommendations for the United States to prevent and respond to potential biological catastrophes, such as the novel coronavirus.
NTI officials say global biological catastrophes may not only impact millions of lives but could have a huge impact on... Read More »
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Angus King (I-ME) recently requested information on why the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) PREDICT program was ended.
The USAID PREDICT program was founded in 2009... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and biopharmaceutical company CureVac AG announced that, as of last week, they are linked in the effort to accelerate development of vaccines against the novel coronavirus (nCoV-2019).
While the pair had already been partnering to create... Read More »
The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) adopted a positive opinion for the approval of Emergent Biosolutions’ oral cholera vaccine, Vaxchora.
Authorization from the European Commission is anticipated within three months. The marketing... Read More »
U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar began a new path last week in the previously measured efforts to contain the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), declaring a public health emergency for the nation and opening more flexibility for health authorities to respond.
The emergency... Read More »
A collaboration between Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Beijing Advaccine Biotechnology Co. announced last week intends to take on the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus -- 2019-nCoV -- through advancement of the INO-4800 vaccine.
Inovio recently began developing INO-4800 through Phase 1... Read More »
Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee were briefed this week on the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak by top members of the Trump administration and reiterate that risk remains low.
These members were addressed by Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and... Read More »
Scientists from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research turned to an old plant virus -- the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) -- as the foundation for a new research effort: a second-generation malaria vaccine candidate.
Demonstrated in the Proceedings of the National Academy Sciences, the... Read More »
With those infected by the novel coronavirus – 2019-nCoV – now topping 7,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Economic Forum have jointly created a public-private collaboration known as the Pandemic Supply Chain Network (PSCN) to drive the emergency supply chain.
The network... Read More »
Faced with five confirmed cases and dozens of potential infections being traced across the U.S., senators from both parties have called on the federal government for updates and strategies for how to contain the recent outbreak of coronavirus.
For some, the concern lay with the Department of... Read More »
Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) continue to call risk to Americans by the Wuhan coronavirus -- 2019-nCoV -- low, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) became the latest federal lawmaker this week to call for a public health... Read More »
As the outbreak of novel coronavirus -- 2019-nCoV -- continues unabated, a meeting of top officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the People’s Republic of China this week aimed to lockdown next steps for a unified assault on the virus.
The biggest news to come out of the meeting... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Southampton in England have identified areas in China and around the world that are considered high-risk from the spread of the coronavirus.
The university’s WorldPop research team found that Bangkok, Thailand, is most at risk from a global spread of the... Read More »
U.S. Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) is urging the Trump Administration to reestablish the White House global health security and biothreats directorate within the National Security Council.
In 2016, after the Ebola virus emerged, the Obama administration created the global health and biothreats... Read More »
Faced with a novel coronavirus -- 2019-nCoV -- that continues to spread worldwide, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced this week that it will commit $10 million toward containment in China and Africa.
The funds will be split down the middle: $5 million will go to response support in... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has joined the international effort to fight the Wuhan coronavirus -- a novel coronavirus known as 2019-nCoV -- through assistance to developers, a public information campaign and diagnostics development.
“We have a vital mission to protect and... Read More »
Global health security may need an overhaul.
That’s how Kathryn Bouskill, a social scientist at the RAND Corporation and associate director of the RAND Center for Global Risk and Security, sees the future of the discipline.
In her recently published paper ‘Global Health and Security:... Read More »
Two new reports reveal a weak pipeline for new antibiotics to combat drug-resistant infections.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says this is due to declining private investment and the lack of innovation in the development of new antibiotics.
“Never has the threat of antimicrobial... Read More »
Confirmed infections of the Wuhan coronavirus reached five people in the United States over the weekend, with already known cases in Washington state and Chicago being joined by new patients in California and Arizona.
In all cases, the patients recently returned to the United States from Wuhan,... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) sent letters to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the State Department seeking information on their response to the coronavirus originating out of Wuhan, China.
Respiratory droplets, similar to influenza, can transmit the coronavirus. It... Read More »
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed a second U.S. case of the Wuhan coronavirus on Friday, pointing to a patient in Chicago while revealing that 63 other possible cases are being tracked across 22 states.
Though Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center... Read More »
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) issued a warning this week on the discovery of the Wuhan coronavirus in the United States, stating strong prevention and control practices, safety equipment, and funding support are critical to moving forward.
The Wuhan coronavirus -- known to... Read More »
A pair of researchers at George Mason University -- associate professor Aarthi Narayanan and assistant professor Remi Veneziano -- have received funding from the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) for work on a new vaccine design.
That design has the potential to... Read More »
Despite recent efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to initiate health screenings at several U.S. airports, the first case of a novel coronavirus has cropped up in Washington state.
The novel coronavirus has rapidly expanded its reach in recent weeks, following an... Read More »
All travelers from Wuhan, China, to the United States will have to undergo public health screening at the three U.S. airports that receive the most travelers from the Chinese city - San Francisco, New York, or Los Angeles - in response to a novel coronavirus outbreak that is continuing to grow.... Read More »
A pair of reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows a weak incoming pipeline of antibiotics, and, according to the organization, this lack of innovation is only going to degrade efforts to counter drug-resistant infections.
Research and development, according to the twin reports,... Read More »
Pandemic preparedness collaboration among private businesses with the public sector is critically important at this time, say experts at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the World Economic Forum, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“The next severe pandemic will not only... Read More »
Biologists from the University of California San Diego, along with a team of researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, recently engineered synthetic mosquitoes capable of neutralizing many types of dengue virus.
The study focuses on Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which spread dengue to... Read More »
As the world researchers try to identify the cause of a mysterious, novel coronavirus from China, researchers from the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) have made headway on at least tracking its existing, with the creation of a new assay protocol that allows quick testing of suspected... Read More »
Seventeen years after the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) global epidemic, its shadow lingers in an ongoing outbreak of mysterious pneumonia cases in China, which an international group of researchers says showcase the potential for pathogens to appear suddenly and wreak deadly global... Read More »
CARB-X has awarded $3.2 million to Trellis Bioscience and dangled the possibility of $3.8 million more for the creation of a monoclonal antibody that can disrupt superbugs’ protective coating.
The bacteria that become superbugs have a biofilm coating that protects them from antibiotics. By... Read More »
