© NIAID

Swiss Roche AG has missed the primary endpoint in the REMDACTA trial in patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. 

Picture: AVMI/Merck

Africa produces less than 1% of the human vaccines it uses. To effectively respond in time of outbreaks and pandemics, Africa must expand its vaccine development and production capabilities to cater for its growing population. Successfully establishing such an industry at scale is a multifaceted endeavour to create an enabling environment. This article highlights key factors and considerations for establishing local vaccine manufacturing.

Picture: www.l-r@kaelte.de

The current debates regarding vaccine production and logistics have also made it clear even to the layman: Pharmaceutical production depends on cold. Temperatures below -80?°C are just as common as the requirement to freeze precursors such as blood plasma within a specified time period. Refrigeration specialists with pharmaceutical know-how are in demand for these challenging tasks.

Torben Osterlund is the new Chief Scientific Officer of the Dutch biotech company Toxys B.V., based in Leiden

© BioSpero

Danish sustainable crop protection company, BioPhero AS, has raised $17m in Series A funding led by DCVC Bio.

marius walter - wikipedia.org

German researchers have presented a new method to assess on-target and off-target effects of CRISPR-Cas nucleases or TALENs.

© Russian Ministry of Health

EMA’s human medicines committee has started a rolling review of Sputnik V, a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Russia’s Gamaleya National Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology.

The EchoLUTION Viral RNA/DNA Swab 96 Kit workflow /©picture: Bioecho

Although innovative biotechnologies are developed continuously, the method of nucleic acid extraction stayed unchanged for several decades. The classical bind-wash-elute approach seemed sufficient, but the COVID-19 pandemic uncovered the need for a new technique to be able to process multiple samples fast and in parallel. BioEcho developed a completely new technology, which simplifies and speeds up the process of RNA extraction dramatically.

picture: (f.l.t.r): The founders of Origenis - Dr. Andreas Treml, COO; Dr. Michael Thormann, CSO, Michael Almstetter, CEO

Together with star investor Kleiner Perkins, Origenis GmbH, a privately held German biopharmaceutical company, successfully establishes its new business model for the clinical development of its neuroprotective drug pipeline. The formation and financing of Neuron23 Inc. was announced in South San Francisco.

OMV Group Schwechat Refinery, © OMV Group

Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz (CAC) is realizing one of the first large-scale plants in Europe to use innovative co-processing to produce carbon-neutral fuels.