Sarah Bachar

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 US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday approved updated COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna that target the KP.2 virus strain, which emerged from the highly contagious JN.1 variant that began circulating widely in the United States last winter. The new shots are expected to be available within days amid spiking case rates and hospitalizations for COVID-19. Experts also hope the vaccines will provide cross-protection against closely related subtypes of the virus, including KP.3.1.1 and KP.3, which are now spreading rapidly and account for 36 and 17 percent of all new cases, respectively. The FDA has not yet approved a third vaccine from drugmaker Novavax.The World Health Organization (WHO) this week recommended three new oral regimens for multidrug-resistant or rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (TB) that can cure patients more quickly and successfully than the current painful injectable regimens. These regimens—which include the use of new and repurposed medicines like bedaquiline, pretomanid, linezolid, and delamanid—can be offered to nearly all patients and can improve treatment success by shortening treatment time to six to nine months, rather than the usual 18 months, while reducing treatment toxicity and the spread of drug-resistant forms of TB. WHO’s recommendations are based on results from the BEAT-TB clinical trial conducted in South Africa and the endTB trial conducted in seven countries between 2017 and 2023 by Médecins Sans Frontières, Partners In Health, and Interactive Research and Development and funded by Unitaid.  A new study found that giving azithromycin to all children up to five years old can greatly reduce childhood mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, more so than by limiting the distribution of the antibiotic to younger children, as recommended by WHO. The study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that twice-yearly distribution of azithromycin to children ages 1 to 59 months in rural communities in Niger reduced childhood mortality by 14 percent when compared with children who received a placebo. Further, the study found that targeting only children ages 1 to 11 months (recommended by WHO in 2020) did not lead to a significant reduction in childhood mortality. However, concerns remain about the effect of routinely distributing the antibiotic to all children under five on antimicrobial resistance.