HHS awards more than $500 million to study Covid-19 vaccine nasal sprays and more
CNN (10/13)
On Friday, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced another $500 million in Project NextGen funding, which will support phase 2b clinical trials of three COVID-19 vaccine candidates, as well as other technologies to enhance preparedness against COVID-19 and future disease outbreaks. Specifically, the awards will go to two intranasal vaccine candidates that are administered as sprays and one self-amplifying mRNA vaccine candidate that is administered as an injection; phase 2b clinical trials of those vaccine candidates could start as soon as this winter. Funding will also go to the development of vaccine patches, cold-chain sample management, genomic sequencing, and increased laboratory capacity.
IQVIA allies with CEPI to speed drug development for battling future disease outbreaks
Fierce Biotech (10/12), features the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is leading an initiative with the biopharma data provider IQVIA aimed at enhancing global research capacity to advance the 100 Days Mission, which aims to be able to respond to the next Disease X (a future pathogen with pandemic potential) with medical countermeasures within 100 days of its identification. Under the initiative, IQVIA will provide tools and resources to support research preparedness in underserved regions during ‘peacetime’ (when there is no ongoing pandemic outbreak) and to support clinical trials during future outbreaks of diseases with pandemic potential. CEPI will fill in gaps to ensure high-quality data are generated during an outbreak response to inform further research.
New coalition to target viral spillovers
CIDRAP (10/12)
Last week, The Lancet and the Coalition for Preventing Pandemics at the Source announced that they have convened the Commission on Prevention of Viral Spillover, which will work to mobilize decision-makers to support research and policies to prevent future viral spillovers and pandemics following the COVID-19 pandemic, which was the fifth viral pandemic caused by a viral spillover in the last century. The commission, which includes 28 experts in a variety of fields from epidemiology to veterinary medicine to food systems management, will conduct original research and publish a comprehensive report within two to three years on recommendations to prevent such spillovers.
