A vaccine agreement between the UK and French biotech Valneva worth $1.65 billion has been abandoned after the country says terms of the deal were not met.

Valneva’s vaccine candidate uses an inactivated virus to invoke an immune response. While that may provide greater coverage against the virus, it can also cause a longer manufacturing timetable. The company announced that Phase III results for VLA2001 were expected in early Q4 2021, and will be a part of the candidate’s submission to the MHRA for approval.

As children return to school and youth Covid-19 hospitalizations hit a new high, BioNTech is reportedly prepping a launch for its mRNA vaccine developed with Pfizer in those between 5 and 11 years old.

BioNTech CMO Özlem Türeci told the weekly German magazine Der Spiegel that the company will file the results of its trial in 5- to 11-year-olds with regulators across the world “over the next few weeks,” and that final production steps are being adjusted to bottle a lower-dose pediatric version of the vaccine.

A little more than two months after the US halted all shipments of Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody combo for the treatment of Covid-19 on a national basis, the FDA has decided that the use of the drug can resume across the country.

“Based on the most currently available data, bamlanivimab and etesevimab are now authorized in all U.S. states, territories, and jurisdictions,” the FDA said yesterday, noting in a fact sheet that the combo retained activity against the Delta variant. The combo had previously been pulled because it struggled to work against the Beta and Gamma variants, which are now no longer prevalent in the US.

Humanigen, once led by the imprisoned Martin Shkreli, is finding itself in a similarly confined space.

On Thursday, the company said the FDA declined its request for an EUA for its lead drug lenzilumab to treat newly hospitalized Covid-19 patients, sending shares of the company’s stock $HGEN down by more than 50% pre-market.

Why exactly the FDA rejected the EUA remains largely unknown as the company offered few specifics.

UK-based AI discovery outfit Exscientia has signed its name to a $70 million collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to drum up five antiviral candidates for use against coronaviruses and potential pandemic viruses, the partners said Wednesday.

The partnership will pay Exscientia $35 million in equity through the Gates Foundation’s Strategic Investment Fund with the potential for more grant funding. Exscientia, meanwhile, will front $35 million in matching funds to support the discovery work up to Phase I. The term of the pact is four years, and Exscientia will be tasked with finding “small molecule therapeutics with less susceptibility to variants and greater patient access than current approaches,” the company said in a release.

The use of more than 12.1 million doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine will be halted in Brazil, after regulators learned that the manufacturing site was not approved for emergency use by Anvisa, the national health agency.

Anvisa announced the 90-day suspension in a statement Saturday. Another 17 batches, or 9 million doses, are also en route to Brazil, and will be held due to being bottled at a site that was not inspected.

Moderna submitted initial data to the FDA for its Covid-19 vaccine booster plan earlier this week, and that plan is sharpening into view following several published pre-prints over the last few weeks.

Studies outlining the Moderna vaccine’s effectiveness in different immunocompromised populations, as well as examining the shots’ ability to prevent breakthrough infections, have come to light recently. And most, if not all, of the pre-prints show Moderna’s shot netting higher rates at preventing Covid-19 than the jab from Pfizer and BioNTech.

GlaxoSmithKline will join the growing list of biotechs that mandate vaccinations for its US employees, and a company spokesperson said it is looking into UK policy as well.

Complementary workers and visitors to its sites will also need to be fully vaccinated, the company said. The policy will be put into place in the next few weeks, and exceptions will be made for those with disabilities, medical conditions or religious exemptions.