In the same way that the FDA signs off on flu vaccines every year without requiring large clinical trials to measure their efficacy, the FDA may employ a similar strategy in authorizing variant-focused versions of the mRNA vaccines.

As the world braces for more data on the latest variant Omicron, which may reduce vaccine efficacy, top vaccine developers like Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech have promised they can pull together a new vaccine targeted against a specific Covid variant in about 100 days. Since Omicron emerged last week, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and J&J have all said they’ve begun work on Omicron-specific vaccines, if needed.

Back in July, Ocugen and Bharat Biotech unveiled some Phase III data suggesting their Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin, was 77.8% effective at preventing overall disease in India. They’re now looking to launch an immuno-bridging study to see if those numbers hold up in the US — but on Friday, the FDA said not so fast.

Regulators have placed a clinical hold on the partners’ IND, Ocugen shared on Friday. Ocugen’s stock $OCGN sank 9% on the news Friday, but was up almost 7% in pre-market trading on Monday.

Shares of Fennec Pharmaceuticals stock were cut almost in half early Monday as the company said manufacturing issues caused another FDA rejection of its reformulated version of sodium thiosulfate, which is intended to help kids who lose hearing due to chemo treatment.

The biotech had resubmitted an NDA for the drug to treat platinum-based, chemo-related ototoxicity in young children earlier this year. The first NDA was denied by the FDA last year, with the agency citing manufacturing issues with the biotech’s supplier.

Bristol Myers Squibb has $4 billion hopes for its late-stage TYK2 inhibitor deucravacitinib, but the FDA’s recent negative review for the JAK inhibitor class has dampened hopes somewhat. Now, the agency will get its first good look at TYK2, and Bristol Myers will have to wait and hold its breath.

The FDA has set a target review date of Sept. 10, 2022, for deucravacitinib, a potential first-in-class oral inhibitor for the TYK2 signaling pathway in psoriasis that would be a challenger to the controversial JAK inhibitors, the drugmaker said Monday.

The emergence of the Omicron variant over the holiday has reignited the focus on vaccine equity, and in its efforts to bring more shots to Africa, one South African biotech is reportedly close to reproducing Moderna’s mRNA shot.

Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines is speeding toward its pivotal trials, the Washington Post reported Sunday, though it’s doing so without Moderna’s recipe. The biotech reportedly has finished sequencing the Moderna vaccine and plans to soon compare its own recreation to Moderna’s jab.