💊 Satio’s new Ebola diagnostic; WHO’s decision-making tool repository; $1.4 billion for next-gen Covid therapies, vaccines

#412 | Genetic variation in Alzheimer’s progression; Covid shot against SARS, MERS; A unique bacterial killer

Hello there. Welcome back to The Kable for a jam-packed edition. Kenya is targeting 7.4 million children under the age of five in a new polio vaccination drive starting tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the Uganda Red Cross Society and the International Federation of Red Cross are convening a high-level meeting of East African countries to chart a collaborative course of action in dealing with Ebola outbreaks.

Niger relies on its neighbour Nigeria for 90% of its power. But in July, soldiers ousted Niger’s democratically elected President. Consequently, severe economic and travel sanctions imposed on Niger by regional countries have led to unending power cuts. The UN is spending 20x the usual amount on fuel for generators to keep millions of vaccines – including for polio and rotavirus – in the country from spoiling. Luckily, the roughly 1300 local health centres in Niger are powered by solar panels, but regional and district levels rely on electricity and generators. If the country runs out of diesel fuel, 28 million vaccine doses could be lost.

In South Sudan, Médecins Sans Frontières is concerned by the rise in measles and malnutrition cases, especially among displaced and host communities. Many patients are children younger than five years of age.

Russian drugmakers like Pharmasyntez are strengthening their local presence in Latin American markets. Pharmasyntez has already begun supplying oncology, diabetes, and HIV drugs to Ecuador.

Yesterday, the Medicines for Malaria Venture announced that Brazil has become the first malaria-endemic country to approve the use of Kozenis in combination with chloroquine to treat malaria in children two years of age and older.

Over in India, Torrent Pharma is vying to acquire a stake in Cipla. If this deal goes through, it could create India’s second-largest drugmaker by revenue. Of course, Torrent is still competing with Blackstone and Baring PE Asia-EQT.

In more India news, the Indian Medical Association is urging the government to withdraw new regulation mandating that doctors prescribe only generics. It says the regulation shouldn’t be enforced until there is more stringent quality assurance in generics manufacturing.

Covid may still be evolving, but so is our response to it. In small animal studies, Novavax’s updated vaccine generated an immune response against new variants like “variant of interest” Eris.

If you were looking to get into the osteoarthritis management space, now’s the time. A study published in The Lancet Rheumatology found that 15% of the global population aged 30 years and over currently has the condition. By 2050, close to one billion people will be living with osteoarthritis.

A report by Research and Markets claims that between 2023 and 2028, the global bioprocess containers market will likely see strong growth, with more design customization and increasing demand for automation and ML in the industry.

Meanwhile, the list of warning letters issued by the US FDA only gets longer. This time, Amazon and Walmart are at the receiving end for selling an unapproved molluscum treatment.

Across the pond, the European Medicines Agency has suspended drug production at Spain’s Serra Pamies Laboratories until further notice. Issues with quality management, data integrity, and expired raw materials are only some of the concerns cited.

Under the Transformative Medicine Manufacturing programme, Innovate UK is investing £13 million (~$16.6 million) in 17 biopharma projects across the UK. The beneficiaries will direct the funds towards projects in automating or digitalizing manufacturing, manufacturing nucleic acid-based medicines, developing intracellular drug delivery methods, and more.

Boston-based startup Satio is developing a line of blood-sampling devices that collect samples via an adhesive skin patch, thereby reducing exposure to pathogens which may happen during traditional blood collection methods. This tech is set to be combined with an Ebola diagnostic from Senegal’s Institut Pasteur de Dakar to create a rapid, low-cost combined blood collection+testing platform. The development of this Ebola test is getting an undisclosed amount of funding from BARDA.

Mahana Therapeutics has inked a multi-million dollar agreement with Bayer’s consumer health division to commercialise digital therapeutics.

And finally, Novartis is cutting jobs. Again.