U.S. Capitol dome, Congress, Anerican flag

As the fairness of orphan drug exclusivities is debated in Congress, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Orphan Drug designations to Editas Medicine and Neurocrine Biosciences.

The global vaccine alliance Gavi has secured $4.8 billion in funding pledges for the vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX, an official said on Friday, falling just shy of its target.

It will take $15 billion in grants during 2022 and another $10 billion annually after that to establish and maintain an adequate toolkit to respond to COVID-19 and address future pandemic threats, according to four organizations focused on global health and the economy.

Hot off the heels of the company’s milestone approval for the unique checkpoint inhibitor Opdualag, Bristol Myers Squibb forged an oncology drug discovery and development deal valued at more than $1 billion with Volastra Therapeutics.

Patient groups mounted a public pressure campaign aimed at persuading the U.S. government to loosen proposed restrictions on new Alzheimer’s treatments, spending millions of dollars on television and local advertisements that began running during the March 13 morning political shows.

Paxlovid

Pfizer Inc. is expected to provide around 10 million courses of the company’s highly effective COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid to low-income and middle-income countries during 2022, according to an official with the Global Fund, a healthcare NGO working to buy the pills from the drugmaker.

The global project to share COVID-19 vaccines is struggling to place more than 300 million doses in the latest sign the problem with vaccinating the world is now more about demand than supply.

At least $18 billion is needed to get the fight against malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS back on track from disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a global health fund said on February 23.

The chairman of the Gavi vaccine alliance, Jose Manuel Barroso, said on January 19 that an additional $5.2 billion is needed to continue to deliver vaccines at scale.

The COVAX global vaccine-sharing program has delivered 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses, one of the organizations which manages it said on January 15.