WuXi Bi­o­log­ics may be inch­ing clos­er to work­ing its way off the US “un­ver­i­fied list,” an event that wiped out some $10 bil­lion in mar­ket val­ue ear­li­er this year.

Reuters is re­port­ing that Chi­nese of­fi­cials al­lowed a US ex­port con­trol of­fi­cer to con­duct an in­spec­tion in the city of WuXi, which the wire ser­vice iden­ti­fied as WuXi Bi­o­log­ics, cit­ing an un­named source. And the re­port al­so quot­ed a US ex­port con­trol of­fi­cer who not­ed that an in­spec­tion in An­hui may fol­low, un­less Covid in­ter­feres again.

The lack of in­spec­tions — used to ver­i­fy a com­pa­ny’s “le­git­i­ma­cy and re­li­a­bil­i­ty” — trig­gered tighter ex­port con­trols on WuXi Bi­o­log­ics, which builds drug man­u­fac­tur­ing fa­cil­i­ties and pro­vides equip­ment to com­pa­nies around the world.

Covid-19 has thrown the in­spec­tion process re­quired for cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in­to tur­moil as Chi­nese au­thor­i­ties have strict­ly en­forced lock­downs through­out the coun­try dur­ing the most re­cent out­break. That led to the un­ver­i­fied list for WuXi Bi­o­log­ics in Shang­hai and WuXi, where it was one of two com­pa­nies cit­ed.

Re­cent moves to add com­pa­nies to the US un­ver­i­fied list came amid a rise in ten­sion be­tween Chi­na and the US. Chi­nese of­fi­cials have harsh­ly crit­i­cized the move, but the Reuters re­port in­di­cates lit­tle flex­i­bil­i­ty on the US’s part.

“Covid aside, it’s re­al­ly de­pen­dent on them to agree to sched­ule the pend­ing end-use checks that we have,” the of­fi­cial said, ac­cord­ing to Reuters.

At the time, WuXi Bi­o­log­ics dis­count­ed the im­pact of the move.

So­cial im­age: WuXi web­site

The mRNA player Moderna is further cementing its presence on the African continent.

Moderna announced on Thursday that it has finalized an agreement with Kenya’s government to partner up and bring an mRNA manufacturing facility to the east African nation. The new facility aims to manufacture up to 500 million doses of vaccines annually. Moderna also said the new facility will have the ability to spike its production capabilities to respond to public health emergencies on the continent or globally.

ViiV Healthcare has teamed up with the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool and three generic manufacturers to expand access to medicine that can prevent HIV.

ViiV and the Medicines Patent Pool jointly announced Thursday that the MPP signed sub-licensing agreements with Aurobindo, Cipla and Viatris to manufacture generics of a long-acting form of cabotegravir for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). As a result of the agreement, the manufacturers will be able to develop, manufacture and supply generic versions of cabotegravir LA in 90 countries — subject to regulatory approvals.

Catalent will be manufacturing a low-cost version of the opioid overdose treatment naloxone as part of a contract with Harm Reduction Therapeutics.

Catalent plans to manufacture the treatment at its facility in Morrisville, NC. No financial details on the deal were disclosed.

Harm Reduction was granted priority review status for the NDA on its spray last year. The company has been working on a naloxone product since 2017. It is anticipating approval in July of this year and a US launch in early 2024.

Last year, South African-based vaccine manufacturer Aspen Pharmacare was facing reports that it had not received a single order for its manufactured Covid-19 shots and that manufacturing lines were sitting idle. But now the vaccine producer is looking to turn things around.

Aspen’s disclosure of its financial results in March unveiled that manufacturing revenue had decreased by 12% to R 603 million ($33.8 million), which Lorraine Hill, Aspen Group’s COO, said is attributable to lower Covid vaccine sales.