7 August

The US Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded an additional $35.6m to fund SAB Biotherapeutics DiversitAb Rapid Response Antibody Programme. The follow-on award will fund the clinical development and production for SAB-185, a new therapeutic targeted to SARS-CoV-2 without using human donors. It will also support increased manufacturing capacity for rapid response. So far, the company has received three awards worth a total of $72m for its Covid-19 and Scaling its programme.

US military shipbuilding company Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has reported that Covid-19 related delay and disruption estimates across all its programmes resulted in $61m costs in the quarter that ended 30 June. The company’s second-quarter revenues were down by 7.4% to $2.0bn. HII President and CEO Mike Petters said: “The delay and disruption from lower attendance, availability of critical skills, and out-of-sequence work caused by COVID-19 has impacted our ability to complete work as efficiently as initially planned and has added incremental program cost and pushed schedules and milestones to the right, which is incorporated in our results and updated outlook for 2020.”

The US Department of Defense’s (DOD) Joint Acquisition Task Force (JATF) has awarded contracts worth $104m for the purchase of syringes and safety needles. The procurement is part of the country’s Covid-19 vaccination strategy. The items will be placed into the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). This will enable rapid vaccination of the US population once a Covid-19 vaccine is developed and made available for nationwide administration.