💊 AstraZeneca gets Revvity’s gene editing tech; Amgen and Janssen reach patent case settlement; What’s up with the pandemic treaty?

Indian cough syrups really did cause Gambian child deaths; Smallpox vaccine against mpox; Delivering health for all

Hello, and welcome back to The Kable. In today’s edition, cough meds keep up their bad rep, old vaccines emerge as potential solutions to current problems, and the WHO harps on about future pandemics.

Revvity has announced a new non-exclusive license agreement with AstraZeneca; as part of the deal, AstraZeneca will get access to Revvity’s proprietary gene editing tech to further its development of cell therapies for the treatment of cancer and immune-mediated diseases. As compared to traditional CRISPR technologies, Revvity’s newer system permits a more controlled approach to gene disruption.

Amgen and Janssen have reached a settlement in the patent infringement case concerning J&J’s Crohn's disease and psoriasis drug Stelara, paving the way for Amgen to launch its Stelara biosimilar no later than 1 January 2025.

Novo Nordisk announced that a pill version of its obesity drug Wegovy succeeded in a phase 3 trial, demonstrating a weight loss effect comparable to its injectable counterpart. The company will likely file for approval in the US and EU this year.

Pfizer, too, had good news on the weight loss drug front. Phase 2 trial data showed that the company’s GLP-1 agonist, Danuglipron, helped type 2 diabetes patients to lose weight. These results were similar to those produced by Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic.

UAE’s TVM Capital Healthcare is investing €10 million into Amsterdam-based medical devices company DEBx Medical. As part of this deal, DEBx Medical will set up a regional headquarters and production base in the MENA region to introduce its treatment for non-healing chronic wounds to the region’s countries.

Blueprint Medicines’ Ayvakit has received US FDA approval to treat adults with indolent systemic mastocytosis. Though this drug was approved for more limited use in 2021, this expanded indication can now help 90-95% of patients with the disease in the US.

The FDA has also given a thumbs up to Indivior’s Opvee nasal spray for the emergency treatment of opioid overdose in individuals 12 years of age or older.

On the other hand, the agency has given a thumbs down to New Jersey-based Sure-BioChem, issuing a warning letter to the contract test laboratory for its failure to institute and follow procedures for some of its tests and for not validating its use of alternative microbial methods, among other concerns.

Novis has recalled a lot of its paediatric cough suppressant because, well, it’s not a cough suppressant at all. Instead, reports indicate that carton packages labelled as the cough medicine actually contain Finafta Anaesthetic/Analgesic Liquid. There have been no reports of adverse events yet, but children who ingest the affected product are at a heightened risk of alcohol toxicity, hypoglycaemia, coma, or death.

In the UK, the government’s Global AMR Innovation Fund is injecting £39 million (~ $48.5 million) into research efforts to develop treatments for anti-microbial resistance.

Too used to its globally scattered Commonwealth, Britain plugged its own hospital staffing shortages by recruiting a record number of international nurses in the last financial year. Roughly 10% of these recruits were from the WHO’s “red-list” countries which have healthcare staffing issues of their own. A lot of these recruitments are via direct applications rather than active recruitment from British agencies, so international recruits will likely continue to fill NHS vacancies.

According to UNICEF, drought has left more than 7 million children below five years of age malnourished across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia; 1.9 million+ are at risk of dying of severe malnutrition. Given the high levels of disease, displacement and food insecurity, the agency is calling for investment in resilient systems in the region to protect them from future catastrophes.

In Brazil, Instituto Butantan has started developing a bird flu vaccine.

In the same country, researchers from the Federal University of Minas Gerais are also developing a vaccine against drug addiction. Tests in animal models have already shown promising results.

In Namibia, an outbreak of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever has been declared after the death of one person to the disease.

In Kenya, an unidentified illness has killed one child and hospitalized 19 others. All those affected are associated with the same primary school and exhibit similar symptoms, including severe headaches and chest pain.

And finally, in South Africa, experts are advising healthcare workers to treat each and every diarrhoea case as a suspected cholera case until proven otherwise.