At his confirmation hearing, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee for secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, claimed that he is not anti-vaccine. But his record does not bear that out. Kennedy is a longstanding vaccine denier, and in 2021 was identified as one of the “Disinformation Dozen” – the 12 accounts responsible for the majority of disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines on social media platforms – by the British-American nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate.
In a U.S. Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing marked by shouted protests, outbursts of applause and tense exchanges on several issues, including ones beyond the reach of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK) tried to present himself as someone who follows the science, not a conspiracy theorist or anti-vaxxer.
While Moderna Inc. plans to cut its expenses by $1 billion in 2025, the company has received a little breathing room by a hefty U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grant. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority awarded Moderna roughly $590 million to support late-stage development of its mRNA-based avian-variant vaccines and to increase the number of clinical trials for another five additional subtypes of pre-pandemic influenza.
As investors and industry alike try to read the tea leaves of what the upcoming change in administrations holds for the U.S., speculation abounds about what Trump 2.0 will mean for the biopharma and med-tech spaces.
Biontech SE agreed to pay up to nearly $1.26 billion in two separate settlements to resolve royalty disputes with the U.S. NIH and the University of Pennsylvania related to the COVID-19 vaccine the company partnered with Pfizer Inc.
First, the good news about pandemics – and in 2024, there was big “good news.” Science Magazine named lenacapavir (Gilead Sciences Inc.) as the Breakthrough of the Year. In two separate trials, lenacapavir prevented HIV transmission with 100% efficacy in cisgender African women and 99.9% efficacy in men and gender-diverse persons when administered twice a year.
SK Bioscience Co. Ltd. won €50 million (₩75.5 billion, US$52.03 million) up front from Sanofi SA to expand an earlier agreement to develop and commercialize novel pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs). The first deal resulted in GBP-410 (SP-0202), its pediatric 21-valent PCV candidate that moved into phase III study last week.
GC Biopharma Corp. will buy plasma collector Abo Holdings Inc. in a ₩138 billion (US$96.28 million) cash acquisition as the vaccine and plasma-derived medicinal products developer works to accelerate entry of Alyglo (IVIG-SN 10%) in the U.S., where it was approved last year.
SK Bioscience Co. Ltd. gained approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee in Australia to start phase I/II trials of GBP-560, its mRNA-based vaccine candidate for mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis virus, with funding from Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
“I think elections are like pregnancy. … Everyone puts all of the energy into D-day – the birth. We’ve had the gender reveal, but what really, really matters is what happens now and the path ahead.” That was the instant response of Emma Walmsley, CEO of GSK plc, reacting to breaking news from the U.S. that Donald Trump has won a second term in office.
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