💊 BioNTech pumps in $200 million into new cancer pact; Olympus gets yet another endoscope warning letter from the US FDA; California signs deal to make its own insulin

#301 | In the US, drug-resistant fungal infection gains ground; On climate, the world has a slim window to turn things around; Pregnant mommas can cause babies to put on pound after pound

Hello, and welcome back to The Kable, where we're processing yet another dire warning on the climate change front. At some point in the not-too-distant future, we're going to run out of margins.  The thing about the climate change narrative, though, is that it misses a crucial nuance - in the grander scheme of things, the Earth will survive. Human and animal life, not so much. Let's hope we can make change happen before then.

Elsewhere, BioNTech is putting up $200 million to partner with OncoC4 to co-develop its cancer immunotherapy candidate as a monotherapy or combination therapy in several solid tumours.

Japan's Olympus got yet another warning letter from the US FDA, its third in recent times, over its endoscope manufacturing facility in Tokyo.

The state of California has taken a step forward in its insulin production plans, awarding a contract to CDMO Civica to produce biosimilars of both long and short-term insulins.

The drug-resistant yeast Candida auris, considered an “urgent threat” since it was first reported in the US in 2016, has only increased its geographic spread and strengthened its drug resistanceduring the Covid pandemic.

In the first official death toll announced in the Horn of Africa’s ongoing drought, estimates say 43,000 people – half of whom were likely under 5 years of age – died in Somalia last year. Forecasts for the coming months are even more dire.

A new WHO report says that Africa has witnessed the steepest rise in oral diseases over the past 30 years, with 44% of the continent’s population suffering from one. But spending on oral health remains low.

In more news from the region, the Africa CDC has announced a call for applications for the newly launched Public Health Emergency Management Fellowship to promote workforce development.

And finally, all this news we just told you may be useless if NASA’s chief scientist is right about Earth’s chances of being struck by a massive asteroid. But we need a lot more evidence before we start to worry about this, so until then, you should continue reading The Kable.