💊J&J shuts down a vaccine unit; GSK looks to shut down Moderna's vaccine trademark; The WHO wants to shut down junk food at stadia

#413 | Singapore gets a biomedtech incubator; The US gets a robomagnetic surgeon; Tropical leaves get a climate shock

Hello, and welcome back to The Kable for what is a mixed bag of days in life sciences news.

First up, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), and the National Healthcare Group (NHG) have launched co11ab Novena, Singapore's first biomedical technology (biomedtech) incubator. With an investment of S$15 million, co11ab aims to drive healthcare advancements by nurturing a dynamic environment for biomedtech startups, seamlessly connecting transformative research to fruitful business endeavors.

In the first of two updates from South Korea, SK bioscience has partnered with Australian firm Vaxxas to develop a patch-type typhoid vaccine aiming for improved immunogenicity and accessibility. The other update from South Korea is also about SK bioscience, who is resuming production of its indigenous flu vaccine after two years.

In the US, shortage of surgeons might soon be a thing of the past with an FDA approval for a new surgical platform that combines robotics and magnetics.

Speaking of the FDA, they must be tired of issuing warnings over contaminated eye drops. The latest warning is against buying or using certain eye drops from Dr. Berne’s and LightEyez due to microbial contamination. Dr. Berne’s has already agreed to recall its drops but LightEyez has apparently not responded to the agency.

Still in the US, Covid patents continue to stir up unrest. In the newest incident, GSK is asking the US patent office to refuse Moderna’s ‘Covid Mvax’ trademark registration as 'merely descriptive' and 'too generic'.

Speak of Big Pharma and the conversation inevitably moves to layoffs. However, J&J is bucking the trend. Instead of laying off people, the company is shutting down an entire vaccine unit itself.

Covid is still in the news with the US CDC saying new variants could cause infections in vaccinated individuals. As if.

And finally, disease. We've written about disease several times in The Kable. For obvious reasons. New research says the order in which you acquire diseases could affect your life expectancy. Here's hoping the order in which you write about diseases has no bearing on life expectancy. Cough.