Hello, and welcome back to The Friday Kable for this week's final wrap-up of the life sciences.

BioNTech is setting up a new lab and manufacturing space in Israel and, in partnership with the Weizmann Institute of Science, also setting up an "mRNA Excellence Center" where it’ll work on a range of diseases, from cancer to infectious to neurodegenerative diseases.

South Korean CDMO Samsung Biologics has signed a deal worth $183 million with Pfizer but no details of what will be manufactured under the deal have been revealed. In more dealmaking for Pfizer, it is collaborating with AI company Tempus to develop cancer drugs. 

In good news on the bird flu front, vaccine makers aren't sitting by idly, twiddling their thumbs. They're, in fact, prepping for bird flu.

The WHO is urgently seeking more support in containing Africa's cholera outbreak, saying the disease has the potential to "quickly explode" as rainfall persists in some areas.

Regardless of claims by the Indian government, the US CDC has now become the latest agency to conclude that child deaths in The Gambia were caused by cough syrups made by India's Maiden Pharma.

Telecoms industry body the GSM Association (GSMA) and the Africa CDC will work together to advance mobile connectivity to support Africa’s most significant healthcare challenges, thanks to a new collaboration between the two.

The Africa CDC's exclusion from the WHO's Pandemic Fund might have accelerated the AU's Africa Epidemics Fund with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa leading fundraising for the new initiative.

And finally, a very, very good Reuters graphical story on the social and societal cost of Covid casualties.

Newsworthy

Public investment, private profits. Sure, mRNA vaccines came into being in record time after the pandemic declaration. But the US government especially has been investing in mRNA research for over three decades, spending nearly $32 billion in public funds on mRNA vaccine development in that time. A study documenting this investment says that $337 million was spent in the three decades prior to the pandemic. This study is sure to pile even more pressure on Pfizer and Moderna, who announced extremely spiked pricing for their Covid jabs recently.
(BMJ)

So much blubber. There is an old saying, the first half of which goes keep your friends close. Soon, whether you want it or not, your friends will be closer to you. Because the inhabitable world is shrinking and the inhabitants are increasing. Not in numbers so much as in girth, with a new report saying more than half of the world will be overweight or obese by 2035. The report, published by the World Obesity Federation, says more than 4 billion people will be obese or overweight within the next 12 years, calling upon policymakers to act urgently to prevent the situation from worsening.
(World Obesity Federation)

Harmonising drug manufacturing. The US FDA recently issued the International Council for Harmonisation's (ICH) final guidance on the use of continuous manufacturing in drug production. This publication marks its proactive steps to ease the pharma industry's transition to these advanced processes, according to the agency's announcement.
While not binding, the document covers the regulatory and scientific considerations needed for the development and implementation of continuous manufacturing in pharma, and the guidelines are meant for both new and pre-existing products. An interesting and mandatory read for anybody looking to set up or augment their drug production facilities.
(US FDA)

R&D

Preventing meningitis. A new study has identified how meningitis-causing bacteria suppress the immune system and also suggested a pathway to prevent this. The mice study showed that bacteria exploit nerve cells in the meninges to suppress the immune response and allow the infection to spread into the brain by activating pain receptors and initiating a signalling cascade that culminates in bacterial invasion of the brain. The two key players in the process are a chemical released by nerve cells and an immune cell receptor blocked by the chemical. Blocking either one can interrupt the cascade and prevent bacterial invasion of the brain.
(Nature)

Target practice with tumours. For children with medulloblastoma, the most common pediatric brain tumour, the commonly available treatment options are chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Both have good survival rates, but the side effects... they be nasty. This means there is a need for cures that aren't worse than the ailment. That new treatment might now be on the anvil, with researchers betting on targeted drug delivery to deliver therapies directly to the tumour without harming healthy cells.
(Nature Materials) 

The Kibble

Make it vegan. And we're not even talking about food here. Drawing inspiration from MasterChef, a team of researchers has created vegan, biodegradable medical sensors using seaweed as a gelatin alternative. Other ingredients in the sensors include rock salt and water, and graphene. And you can even eat these sensors.
(ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering)

Exercising the blues away. All right, we're not trying to minimise depression but a large new study says that when it comes to treating depression, exercise should take precedence over drugs and therapy. And not just depression. The research shows that mild to moderate symptoms of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress can be reduced with physical activity.
(British Journal of Sports Medicine) 

Bottom line

Thank you, bird flu. Tigers in India. Rhinos and hippos across parts of Africa. We can narrate many conservation success stories today where we've bought species back from the brink. However, America's Bald Eagles may not feature in these stories for much longer. Thanks to bird flu which is ensuring that unprecedented numbers of mating pairs of bald eagles are getting killed. Without any culling even.
(Nature Scientific Reports)

Shipping carbon. One of the purported advantages of pan-global lockdowns through 2020 and 2021 was supposed to be the benefits to the environment, thanks to reduced emissions from people travelling to and fro. However, as it turns out, being locked in induced people to shop. And shop. And shop some more. And then shop again on top. And all of this shopping meant a whole shit-ton of shipping. Shipping that took a bigger toll on the environment than all the benefits from people being cooped up inside. This report from the US says an estimated 4.7 million containers travelling aboard over 1,650 ships generated approximately 3.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 alone. And remember, this is only US shipping.
(ShipItZero)

Remembering the days when wildlife existed. Today is World Wildlife Day, an apt day to remember the millions of species we have endangered and extincted (yes, that's now a word) all over the planet. UN chief António Guterres warns that a million more species are at risk unless we take urgent action to reverse the climate crisis.
(UN)

Oh, and Gopal Nair doesn't want you to see this.