Moderna Inc. has received conditional authorization from the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency for its bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccine mRNA-1273.214 (Spikevax bivalent original/omicron). The conditional approval, which covers adults aged 18 years and older, marks a new phase in the ongoing global effort to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, as the new vaccine represents the first commercial product to incorporate omicron-specific epitopes. It contains 25 micrograms each of the spike proteins of the omicron BA.1 variant and the original Wuhan strain of SARS-CoV-2.

Now that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has declared monkeypox a public health emergency, nearly two weeks after a similar declaration from the World Health Organization, the way is cleared for a coordinated response and emergency use authorizations to address supply challenges that could limit the availability of currently approved vaccines. It also has several companies ready to leap into the fray if their preclinical studies show a path to approval. HHS said it just shipped more than 602,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine to states and jurisdictions, an increase of 266,000 in the past week.

As omicron subvariants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus take hold, global cases began to rise in the past month, just as the U.S. authorized its fourth COVID-19 vaccine and developers continue their work on a fall booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5. Worldwide deaths have remained lower than each of the last two pandemic years, signaling that the worst is over. It is clear, however, that as current treatments lose their effectiveness and the virus continues to evolve, efforts to contain the virus will be ongoing.

Since the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the attempts to rapidly develop a vaccine that was effective against current strains, researchers have been looking for a vaccine that could protect more broadly against multiple coronaviruses. That has prompted attempts to harness the potential of the more conserved S2 subunit of the spike protein via which SARS-CoV-2 enters human host cells.

The technology behind one of the most high profile COVID-19 vaccine development programs has been re-engineered to correct a design fault and now forms the basis of newco Vicebio Ltd. The London-based company has shown its face for the first time following its founding in 2019 around molecular clamp technology from the University of Queensland, Australia.

After political leaders across the globe made patents and other intellectual property safeguards the scapegoat for disparities in access to COVID-19 vaccines, the biopharma industry is sharing its vision for how to deal with the foundational issues of equitable access in pandemics to come – and it has nothing to do with IP waivers like the one World Trade Organization members adopted last month.

GSK plc, formerly Glaxosmithkline plc, has begun a significant new chapter in its history with the spin-off this week of its consumer business known as Haleon plc. While the high-profile new listing of Weybridge, Surrey-based Haleon (LON:HLN), the largest in Europe in a decade, grabbed the headlines, investors are keeping a sharp eye on GSK now that it is free to focus on developing and marketing novel drugs.

Although it’s a latecomer to the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., there is a wedge of opportunity for Novavax Inc.’s adjuvanted protein-based vaccine among the 10% of the U.S. adult population that has yet to get a first jab.

Oxford University has opened the doors to its new Pandemic Sciences Institute, a £100 million (US$119.5 million) initiative to build on the research and experience of COVID-19, to counter future pandemic threats.