During a massive disaster or a pandemic, securing the necessary manufacturing capacity, needles, syringes, vials, properly labeled caps, reagents and other supplies is as critical as the development of the product itself. Some experts have been warning about these needs since COVID-19 first began spreading outside of China. Now members of Congress are sounding the alarm.
LONDON – The World Health Organization (WHO) is stepping up its effort to try and ensure equitable access to any approved COVID-19 vaccines and therapies, putting in place a system for sharing all intellectual property, information and clinical trials data needed to enable generic manufacturing.
Swept up into a coronavirus whirlwind, the biopharma industry has ramped up development of therapeutics and vaccines and altered business plans to fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a way that nobody could have imagined only months ago.
LONDON – The World Health Organization (WHO) is stepping up its effort to try and ensure equitable access to any approved COVID-19 vaccines and therapies, putting in place a system for sharing all intellectual property, information and clinical trials data needed to enable generic manufacturing.
LONDON – The CEOs of Pfizer Inc. and Astrazeneca plc both say they are on track to make their COVID-19 vaccines available for use before the end of the year and have promised to manufacture at risk, supply at cost and ensure equitable access.
DUBLIN – Merck & Co. Inc. is placing two separate bets on recombinant viral vector technology in a broad effort to tackle COVID-19, in which it is also in-licensing a small-molecule antiviral drug. Kenilworth, N.J.-based Merck is acquiring Austrian vaccine developer Themis Bioscience GmbH in a move that propels the latter firm’s COVID-19 vaccine program to the front ranks of the industry pipeline. It is entering a COVID-19 vaccine development collaboration with the not-for-profit vaccine research organization IAVI.
LONDON – Human challenge specialist Open Orphan plc has raised £12 million (US$14.6 million) in a placing to accelerate development of COVID-19 challenge study models, to meet demand from vaccines and therapeutics developers worldwide.
HONG KONG – Singapore-based Proteona Pte. Ltd. has started a partnership to characterize the clinical response to a new COVID-19 vaccine, with clinical trials soon to start at Flinders Medical Centre testing the candidate developed in collaboration with Adelaide, Australia-based Vaxine Pty Ltd.
LONDON – Support is growing for human challenge trials in COVID-19 to be approved in order to speed up development of effective vaccines against the pandemic infection. The World Health Organization (WHO) has just released guidelines for assessing the ethical acceptability, saying such trials would allow for more rapid and standardized testing, accelerating development and enabling candidates to be prioritized.
LONDON – Support is growing for human challenge trials in COVID-19 to be approved in order to speed up development of effective vaccines against the pandemic infection.
