All-out efforts by agency staff to help industry supply COVID-19 treatments last year were applauded but now its attention returns to the top pre-pandemic priority, contamination risks. Edge Pharma consents to attack mold, Glicerinas blocked over inspection refusal, Bioiberica hit for ‘reprocessing’ contaminated drug substance, Rentschler bashed for inadequate monitoring.

The Swiss major, which is already signed up to help produce Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, is offering its services to CureVac to produce its mRNA vaccine.

Russia is planning to register a second COVID-19 vaccine this month, while the UK is ramping up its manufacturing capacity for vaccines and therapeutics. 

Frank Mathias, CEO of Rentschler Biopharma, a contract development and manufacturing organization, talks to In Vivo about the company’s new corporate strategy and why he allowed 18 months to prepare that plan for delivery.