The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has granted an approval for Vazkepa (icosapent ethyl) to be used as a treatment to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in high-risk statin-treated adult patients in Great Britain.

The European Medicines Agency and the European Centre for Disease Prevention have joined forces in a new initiative aimed at strengthening the post-marketing surveillance of COVID-19 vaccines in Europe.

ViroCell will supply viral vectors and gene modified cells, to academic and corporate clients, for translational cell and gene therapies going into clinical trials.

Through the acquisition, Pfizer will have access to Amplyx’s lead compound, Fosmanogepix (APX001), an investigational asset under development for the treatment of invasive fungal infections.

Moderna’s investments will double the formulation fill/finish and drug substance manufacturing of its vaccine to up to three billion doses in 2022 at various manufacturing sites.

ADMA will now have the ability to produce Bivigam at an expanded capacity with the same manufacturing scale, while using the same equipment, release testing assays, disposables, and labor force.

Under the terms of the agreement, Catalent will handle the process development and CGMP manufacturing of AavantiBio’s adeno-associated viral vector-based therapeutic candidate for use in clinical trials in the US and Europe.

Avantor plans to increase its single-use manufacturing footprint by 30% and double its cleanroom space in the US and Europe.

Merck has entered into non-exclusive voluntary licensing agreements with five Indian generic drug manufacturers for the development of molnupiravir, an investigational, oral antiviral agent for the treatment of non-hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19.

In addition to the traditional FOYA category awards, ISPE recognized two facilities for operational agility during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With a $5 million grant from DARPA, DNA Script and Moderna will develop a prototype for rapid mobile manufacturing of vaccines and therapeutics as part of the DARPA’s Nucleic Acids On-Demand World-Wide program.

Sanofi will perform the fill/finish of up to 200 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine at its Ridgefield, NJ, facility starting in September 2021.

Samsung and TG Therapeutics have expanded their 2018 contract manufacturing deal for the supply of TG’s ublituximab, an investigational anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody.

Lonza’s new complex will occupy 2000 m2 of the facility with six levels of manufacturing space and will provide room for future small-molecule technologies expansion.

Since launching the partnership, Evotec and Bristol Myers Squibb have established a pipeline of novel first-in-class targeted protein degradation projects, two of which have transitioned into lead optimization.

DCAT’s annual bio/pharmaceutical development and manufacturing business event, DCAT Week, will take place virtually from July 12–16, 2021, with the in-person even postponed to March 20–24, 2022 in New York City.

The decision comes from the US CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices following the evaluation of data showing a rare adverse event involving blood clots in combination with low platelet counts within approximately one to two weeks following vaccination.

EMA's PRAC has concluded that there is a possible link to rare cases of blood clots with low blood platelets with Janssen’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Phico Therapeutics has been awarded up to $18.2 million in grant funding from the CARB-X partnership to advance its lead antibacterial therapy.

Adaptate Biotherapeutics has raised a further $18 million in equity investment during a Series A2 funding round.

Executives that participated in the CPhI post-pandemic survey are predicting a push for repatriation of manufacturing globally.

Lipid production at Evonik’s Hanau, Germany, site was set up in eight weeks and met high-quality requirements, accelerating delivery time, which was originally set for mid-2021.

DFE’s new line will offer market purity and low endotoxin excipients for use in formulation, while providing drug developers and manufacturers high-quality excipient technology and services.

Design for a new BMS multi-product cell therapy manufacturing site in Leiden is underway, with construction to start later in 2021.

The collaboration will evaluate Nanoform’s fast dissolution nanoparticles in Aprecia’s ZipDose 3DP technology platform for buccal and oral drug delivery.

The White House sent Congress a summary of “topline” funding requests that continue efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and to restore the nation’s economic health.

Vertex and CRISPR have amended their collaboration agreement to include the development, manufacture, and commercialization of CTX001, an investigational CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing therapy for sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia.

Waters and Genovis will work to develop automated workflows for the fast and constant characterization of critical quality attributes of monoclonal antibodies and other protein-based drugs in bioprocess development, formulation, stability testing, and quality control.