💊 Malaria vaccines for Africa; Sanofi's Saudi Arabian sojourn; A new UK Rare Disease Research Platform

Record-shattering heat; Dissolvable cardiac devices; The cognitive effects of oral health

Hello, reader. Welcome back to The Kable. If you thought layoff season was over, think again. Medtech giant BD plans to cut 60 jobs at its oldest site in Ireland, though the company is also simultaneously expanding its presence at other locations in the country. These changes come as BD addresses lower demand for Covid-related products and its diabetes care business spins out as a standalone company.

In the UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council are investing £14 million over five years to set up the UK Rare Disease Research Platform. The Platform will have 11 specialist nodes including ones for epigenomics, mTOR pathway diseases, lipidomics and metabolomics, and cardiovascular rare diseases amongst others.

In the US, the Department of Defence has given Evotec’s Seattle-based subsidiary a $74 million contract to discover and develop mAb drugs against orthopoxviruses, a family of viruses which cause Mpox, chicken pox and small pox.

Takeda and F-Star Therapeutics are partnering up for the third time in a year. This time, it’s a bispecific antibody deal worth $1 billion in potential milestones. Not too many details have been revealed other than the fact that they will work on immuno-oncology targets.

In India, Strides Pharma Science has agreed to sell its associate company Stelis Biopharma’s biologics Unit-3 manufacturing facility to Syngene International for ₹702 crore (~ $94 million).

Also in India, Aurigene Pharmaceutical Services is investing $40 million to set up a biomanufacturing facility in the city of Hyderabad.

In the Philippines, there’s good news for the pork industry, as the second phase of an African swine fever vaccine trial shows promise.

And finally, in a resurgence of bird flu news, the West African country Togo has reported an H5N1 outbreak on a poultry farm which has resulted in the loss of a 1500-strong flock.