World News

Gavi has indicated that proposals involving vaccine production in Africa will receive particular consideration as part of broader efforts to strengthen regional manufacturing capacity.

The announcement came during Moderna’s Science Day, where the biotechnology company outlined plans to broaden its pipeline across oncology, rare diseases, and immune-mediated disorders.

The agreement establishes a formal gateway between Abu Dhabi and California, creating new opportunities for collaboration across research, innovation, investment, and commercialization.

Developed through a partnership between Masdar City, M42, and Attentive Science, Biosphere Labs aims to address one of the biggest challenges facing researchers and biotechnology companies: access to high-quality laboratory infrastructure.

Through the HELM Cluster, the emirate has brought together research institutions, advanced healthcare infrastructure, genomics programs, manufacturing capabilities, and distribution networks within a single ecosystem.

Antares will lead the research phase and apply its proprietary drug-discovery platform to a limited number of oncology targets before Novartis decides whether to exercise licensing options for individual programmes.

The announcement follows growing calls from public health advocates and humanitarian organizations urging the US government to share available supplies of MBP134 to support outbreak control efforts in Central Africa.

The move marks an important step toward evaluating the technology for Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-compliant manufacturing while improving the efficiency of producing next-generation medicines.

The acquisition is expected to strengthen Merck’s position in the rapidly growing life sciences sector, particularly in areas such as cell and gene therapy, precision diagnostics, multi-omics research, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

The move follows Sanner’s acquisition of Springboard in January 2024 and reflects the company’s goal of building a seamless, end-to-end CDMO platform spanning medical technology, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology.