Moderna has dosed the first patients in a Phase I study of mRNA-1283, the company’s next-generation Covid-19 vaccine candidate. mRNA-1283 is a potential refrigerator-stable vaccine that is designed to allow easy distribution and administration across settings, especially in developing countries. The safety and immunogenicity of mRNA-1283 will be assessed in this Phase I dose-ranging study.

Japanese biopharma giant Takeda has announced a mutual agreement with IDT Biologika, a contract development and manufacturing organisation, to use its capacity previously reserved for Takeda’s dengue vaccine, TAK-003, to produce the single-shot Covid-19 vaccine developed by Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies. The capacity will be returned to Takeda for critical production of its dengue vaccine after three months.

Fulgent Genetics, a technology company, has been awarded a contract by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide genomic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 samples on a continuous basis by leveraging the company’s next-generation sequencing (NSG) capabilities. As per the agreement, Fulgent will sequence the genomes of random Covid-19 samples. Fulgent will use its NGS platform and sequencing data to perform a large-scale genomic survey of the virus using random samples from across the US.