Nearly 18% of clinical data reported in August were focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, representing the highest percentage for any single month this year. During the month, as the Delta variant took hold throughout the U.S., news of COVID-19 efforts spiked, doubling the amounts seen in both June and July, in which about 9% of the news was pandemic-related, and up significantly from 10% in May.

Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Abbvie, Amivas, Biocryst, Calliditas, Camurus, Cour, GSK, Golden, NFL, Pfizer, Stada, Takeda.

Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Arctic Vision, Astrazeneca, Bio Elpida, Biovaxys Technology, Celsion, Derm-Biome, Enveric, Everest Medicines, Eyenovia, Gilead, Hainan Poly, Intravacc, Luye, Magicmed Industries, Novavax, Sciclone, Sinomab, Suzhou Sinovent, Tarveda.

Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Clene, Elucida, Gritstone, Rottapharm, Takis.

As members of the White House COVID-19 Response Team talk about COVID-19 boosters as if they are a fait accompli for Americans even before the FDA completes its evaluation of the data, the controversy continues to roil around the need for another vaccine dose.

Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Acino, ADQ, Aegis, Amgen, Bayer, Biocorp, Biozeus, Boehringer, Bold, Bwxt, Claritas, Clarus, Coave, Ellipses, Endeavor, Enterome, Exavir, Institute of Cancer Research, McGill, Merck, Oragenics, Oxitope, Phillip Morris, Quralis, Qure, Rakovina, Rapid Dose, RDIF, Remedium, Replicel, Resonant, Salk, Sanford Burnham, Soligenix, Strongbridge, Supertrans, Takeda, Taysha, Théa, Travere, Vifor, Vigil, Xeris.

Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: 4D, Abivax, Acacia, Actinium, Aerie, Alx, Ampio, Arca, Axsome, Bayer, Biogen, Biophytis, Coherus, Crinetics, Daiichi, Eupraxia, Gammadelta, Gensight, Kinaset, Lineage, Monopar, Oramed, SAB, Seres, Theravance, Xilio.

With the U.S. logging more than 4 million new COVID-19 cases in the past few weeks, federal purchasing of antibody cocktails from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Eli Lilly and Co. is continuing to grow. The government has placed orders for $2.94 billion worth of Regeneron's REGEN-COV (casirivimab and imdevimab) and about $330 million of Lilly's etesevimab to complement doses of bamlanivimab it previously purchased. Both antibody combinations, approved under FDA emergency use authorizations (EUAs), have been shown to reduce risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19.