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Less than four years after it was selected as the hub of the WHO-led mRNA tech transfer program, Afrigen's mRNA facility in Cape Town has notched GMP certification. But key challenges remain, including ensuring governments procure locally made products even if they're initially more expensive.

This week's highlights cover African vaccine manufacturing, the Ebola outbreak response, shorter regimens for drug-susceptible TB, and more.

Linksbridge Pharma News: this week's highlights Afrigen reaches GMP milestone Afrigen’s mRNA facility in Cape Town has become the first facility on the continent to notch GMP certification, Health Policy Watch reported last week. The development comes less than four years after the company was selected as the hub of the WHO-led mRNA tech transf...

Eli Lilly made a power move back into vaccines and infectious diseases this week, scooping up three vaccine developers focused on chlamydia, Epstein-Barr virus, staph and other pathogens. More on this update and other pharma news important to global health in this week's highlights.

Linksbridge Pharma News: this week's highlights Lilly makes $4B play for infectious disease vaccines Eli Lilly is back in the vaccines game. The company announced Tuesday that it will shell out close to $4 billion to acquire a trio of companies developing vaccines for viral pathogens linked to long-term neurological and oncological risk, and for

Serum Institute of India says it needs less than a month to manufacture doses of an experimental vaccine ready for testing against the rare species of Ebola spreading in DRC and Uganda.

More on efforts to combat Bundibugyo virus and other pharma news important to global health in this week's highlights.

Linksbridge Pharma News: this week's highlights Ebola outbreak: race for vaccines and drugs begins As a rare species of Ebola spreads in DRC and Uganda, Oxford University and the Serum Institute of India (with support from CEPI) have entered an “emergency response arrangement” to develop and manufacture an investigational vaccine ready for te...

Africa CDC's first African Pooled Procurement Mechanism (APPM) tender for essential medicines for reproductive, maternal and newborn health achieved 30%-90% lower prices compared with member state benchmarks. More on this update and other pharma news important to global health in this week's highlights.

Linksbridge Pharma News: this week's highlights Study: Mosquirix significantly reduced child deaths Introducing Bharat Biotech and GSK’s Mosquirix (RTS,S) malaria vaccine in routine immunization programs in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi averted “about one in eight deaths” among young children over a four-year period. That’s according to study r...

Last week's World Malaria Day generated a flurry of pharma news important to global health, including WHO's prequalification of Coartem Baby (the Novartis/MMV infant antimalarial), India's sign-off on Phase 3 trials of Zydus Lifesciences' oral antimalarial zintrodiazine, Serum Institute of India's licensing deal with Oxford University for a blood-stage vaccine, and more.

Linksbridge Pharma: this week's highlights Coartem Baby wins WHO PQ WHO has prequalified Coartem Baby, the newborn-and-infant antimalarial jointly developed by Novartis and Medicines for Malaria Ventures (MMV). Novartis trumpeted the news last week, just ahead of World Malaria Day.

Armed with a fresh $108 million funding boost, South Africa-based Biovac is gearing up to build the continent's first end-to-end multivaccine manufacturing facility in Cape Town. This week's issue spotlights Biovac's ambitious push, Switzerland's newly unredacted Covid vaccine contracts, data from an early-stage chikungunya mAb trial, and more.

Linksbridge Pharma: this week's highlights Biovac nabs $108M for end-to-end vaccine manufacturing Africa’s first end-to-end multivaccine manufacturing facility is coming to Cape Town. The E.

A new effort to expand access to Gilead's twice-yearly PrEP drug to an additional 1 million people over the next three years doesn't go far enough, argue AVAC and Access Bridge. Lenacapavir needs to reach more than 5 million people per year to have "real impact, build a sustainable market, and drive prices down even further."

More on this development and other pharma news important to global health in this week's highlights 👇

Linksbridge Pharma: this week's highlights U.S.

This week's issue highlights challenges along the path from drug innovation to patient access:

» Gilead's refusal to sell lenacapavir to MSF shows how a manufacturer's access framework can fall short, leaving people who need HIV PrEP without it.

» Meanwhile, efforts to push Merck to commit to generic licensing for its promising oral PrEP candidate before it reaches the market aim to avoid the same post-approval access scramble.

» Antibiotic developer Iterum's collapse demonstrates a different kind of obstacle: even when a drug is approved and available, weak commercial incentives can still choke off access.

Linksbridge Pharma: this week's highlights MSF blasts Gilead over lenacapavir sales Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is publicly slamming Gilead for its “outright refusal” to sell Yeztugo (lenacapavir) to the humanitarian organization. In an open letter last week, MSF faulted the drugmaker’s “unconscionable” restrictions on access ...

Pharmaniaga has landed a $70M, three-year contract to supply human insulin to Malaysia’s public hospitals, becoming the first local producer and potentially unseating supplier incumbents Biocon and Novo Nordisk.

This week’s highlights cover the contract, vaccine R&D updates, the latest on the Pandemic Treaty’s Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing annex, and other pharma news important to global health.

Linksbridge Pharma: this week's highlights Pharmaniaga wins Malaysia human insulin contract Pharmaniaga has scored its first contract to supply human insulin to Malaysian government hospitals, The Edge reported Wednesday. The three-year contract—worth about $70 million—makes the Shah Alam-based manufacturer the first local human insulin ...

The vaccine microarray patch field just got smaller. Needle-free vaccine specialist Vaxess—which raised millions for Covid, flu, measles-rubella and polio vaccines R&D—is pivoting to the lucrative GLP-1 space. More on this update and other pharma news important to global health in this week's highlights.

Linksbridge Pharma: this week's highlights Vaxess abandons vaccines for GLP-1s Armed with a new name and $50 million in Series C funding, microarray patch specialist Vaxess—now Terrestrial Bio—is officially pivoting from vaccines to GLP-1s. That’s according to an Endpoints News exclusive interview with the company’s CEO, who said the...