Baby formula manufacturers would be required to notify regulators about contamination in their products in a wider range of circumstances, under bipartisan legislation introduced Tuesday. The legislation is aimed at preventing and quickly halting any future outbreaks of cronobacter, the bacteria that sickened four babies and fueled last year’s shortage. (The Wall Street Journal)
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, (R-La.), said that he’s being treated for multiple myeloma. “After a few days of not feeling like myself this past week, I had some blood work done. The results uncovered some irregularities and after undergoing additional tests, I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a very treatable blood cancer,” he said in a statement. (NBC News)
Pfizer and BioNTech asked a U.S. government tribunal to cancel patents on COVID-19 vaccine technology that rival Moderna has accused the companies of infringing. Pfizer and its German partner told the U.S. Patent Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board that the two Moderna patents are “unimaginably broad” and cover a “basic idea that was known long before” their invention date of 2015. (Reuters)
The Food and Drug Administration postponed its plans to enforce a law designed to thwart counterfeit or diverted medicines passing through the pharmaceutical supply chain. The law was supposed to be fully enforced in late November, but the agency now says it will not take action until November 2024. (STAT News)
Ginkgo Bioworks entered a five-year strategic cloud and AI partnership with Google Cloud, intended to enable Ginkgo to develop and deploy AI tools for biology and biosecurity. Under the strategic partnership, Ginkgo will work to develop new, state-of-the-art large language models running on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform across genomics, protein function, and synthetic biology. (MarketWatch)
