💊 A new Covid variant of interest; Regeneron's new acquisition; AstraZeneca goes greener

#403 | Inhibiting poxvirus replication; Consistent sleep for your heart; Pollution-linked death and disability

Hello and welcome back to The Kable. In Zambia, the government is sick of livestock disease outbreaks. It is calling on local and foreign investors to establish animal vaccine production plants.

In Bangladesh, climate change is contributing to the current surge in dengue cases. Over 2000 new cases are being reported every day. That’s 72,225 cases and 340 deaths this year. And these numbers don’t even include patients treated in outpatient departments or private doctors’ chambers. Last month, Dhaka’s dedicated Covid hospital was converted into a dedicated dengue facility to deal with this outbreak – the deadliest so far.

According to Switzerland’s IQAir, Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, is the world’s most polluted city — one more location to cut from your list of potential holiday destinations.

In South Korea, medical care for pets is getting a bit heavy on people’s pockets. The government is looking for ways to ease the burden.

A farm in Scotland is the latest to confirm a bird flu outbreak. Because 2000 dead seabirds washing up on a beach just wasn’t enough.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is acquiring clinical-stage biotech Decibel Therapeutics for roughly $109 million, with an additional $$ coming in if certain milestones are met. As you may have guessed, the latter works on treatments to restore and improve hearing and balance. The two companies have collaborated since 2017 and already have three gene therapies in the pipeline.

And finally, our eco-friendly neighbourhood Big Pharma AstraZeneca and renewable energy producer Stratkraft have entered an agreement based on the commissioning of new wind farms in Sweden. AstraZeneca has committed to purchasing 200 gigawatt-hours annually for 10 years – that’s roughly 80% of the company’s electricity needs at its Gothenburg research facility and Södertälje manufacturing plant.