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Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email.The Project to Accelerate New Treatments for Tuberculosis (PAN-TB) announced a joint development agreement to support phase 2 trials evaluating two investigational combination treatment regimens for active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Both regimens combine already registered products with new chemical entities (NCEs). The first combines delamanid and bedaquiline with two NCEs, OPC-167832 and sutezolid, while the second includes pretomanid and bedaquiline with the two NCEs. The trials will test whether these regimens can substantially shorten treatment duration, with the goal of advancing a suitable regimen into phase 3 development. UNICEF has awarded GSK a contract valued at up to US$170 million to produce the first malaria vaccine. The award will pay for 18 million doses of GSK’s RTS,S vaccine over the next three years. UNICEF has stated their hopes that the award will encourage other malaria vaccine developers to continue to innovate new technologies in order to address the burden of malaria, especially to mitigate preventable deaths of children under five years old from the disease. The United Nations agency expects high demand for the vaccine and believes that costs per dose will decrease over time as supply and manufacturing capacity grow in turn.On Monday, August 15, the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) gave conditional approval to Moderna’s Omicron variant-updated COVID-19 vaccine for use as a booster in adults. The approval is based on clinical data that demonstrated “strong immune response” against the original virus and B.A.1 subvariant and exploratory analysis showing a “good immune response” against the B.A.4 and B.A.5 subvariants as well as no serious safety concerns. The UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation followed by supporting the use of the updated vaccine the national booster shot campaign starting next month.