While the biopharma industry was widely praised for its fast response to the COVID-19 pandemic, moves are afoot to ensure that the world is better prepared in case another pandemic hits. Moderna Inc. was one of the companies that blazed a trail in the early stages of the pandemic with its revolutionary mRNA vaccine. Now the firm is investing in manufacturing and R&D in the U.K. to make good on a pledge to respond to the next global disease threat within 100 days of its detection.

A Chinese study led by scientists at Nanjing University is the first to show that modified small extracellular vesicles can cross the placenta and blood-brain barrier to target drug delivery in mice infected with the Zika virus, in which they were shown to significantly reduce fetal neurological damage, including microcephaly.

A multi-omics analysis led by Chinese scientists at Tsinghua University in Beijing has demonstrated that aberrant metabolism of the co-enzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) was responsible for microcephaly induced by Zika virus infection during pregnancy.

A study led by Australian researchers at the University of Queensland has shown that a newly developed antibody targets the flavivirus nonstructural protein 1 and was shown to reduce viremia and improve survival in mouse models of dengue, Zika and West Nile infections.

CAJICA, Colombia – Previous research to develop vaccines for dengue and Zika virus could become the cornerstone for a vaccine against COVID-19, which the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is working on.