Tag Archives: pharma

Novavax Seeks FDA Approval For Its COVID Vaccine

Axios reports: As one of America’s first big bets under Operation Warp Speed, Novavax’s COVID vaccine is notably late to the party as the Maryland biotech seeks a potential FDA emergency use authorization for its COVID shot. But company leaders say they see a clear runway to market success for its protein-based product — not only as a booster for …

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Major Pharmas Rush To Develop Monkeypox Tests

ABC News reports: Abbott Laboratories said Thursday that it is working to develop a test that it would then provide to partners of its Pandemic Defense Coalition, a spokesperson said. Abbott’s announcement comes one day after Roche announced it had developed three kits to detect the virus. Roche, which is based in Switzerland, said one test detects orthopoxviruses, which is …

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Legal Weed Reduces Demand For Prescription Drugs

The Cornell Chronicle reports: Legalization of recreational marijuana reduces demand for costly prescription drugs through state Medicaid programs, according to an analysis by a Cornell researcher and a collaborator. When states legalize marijuana, the volume of prescriptions within the drug classes that align with the medical indications for pain, depression, anxiety, sleep, psychosis and seizures significantly decline, the researchers found. …

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Pharma Giant To Pay $11M In Activist Peter Staley’s Anti-Trust Lawsuit Over Blocking Generic HIV Drugs

Fierce Pharma reports: The first of the three pharma juggernauts accused by prominent AIDS and gay rights activist Peter Staley of monopolizing the market for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) drugs is putting its legal woes to bed. Bristol Myers Squibb will hand over up to $11 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it, Gilead Sciences and Johnson & Johnson used …

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Study: COVID Vaccines Have Prevented 2.2M US Deaths

ABC News reports: The U.S. COVID-19 vaccine program is now estimated to have prevented 2.2 million deaths, 17 million hospitalizations and 66.1 million additional infections through March 2022, according to updated modeling from the Commonwealth Fund, an organization advocating for improved healthcare for marginalized communities. In the analysis of recent trends, researchers estimated that the daily peak of deaths pre-omicron, …

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STUDY: Most Anti-Vaxxers Had Abusive Childhoods

Duke University Today reports: Curious about why some people have been so passionately, often angrily, opposed to vaccination against the COVID-19 virus, a team of researchers with access to rare and unusual insights into the childhood forces that shape our adult lives thought they’d try to find out. The Dunedin data showed that 40 years ago in childhood, many of …

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193 Republicans Vote Against Capping Insulin Prices

NPR reports: The House of Representatives voted to approve legislation that would limit cost-sharing for insulin under private health insurance and Medicare. The vote was 232-193, with 12 Republican members joining their Democratic colleagues to pass the measure. The Affordable Insulin Now Act would cap insulin prices at either $35 a month or 25% of an insurance plan’s negotiated price …

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Moderna Seeks FDA Vax Approval For Children Under 6

NPR reports: Moderna is hoping to get the green light to administer a pediatric, low-dose COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 6 months to under 6 years of age, it said in a statement. The pharmaceutical company will submit a request to the Food and Drug Administration “in the coming weeks” for authorization for a two-dose, 25 microgram-each shot. That’s 25% …

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Moderna Seeks Fourth Dose Okay For Those Over 18

USA Today reports: Moderna on Thursday requested emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for a fourth dose of its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster for people 18 and over — a broader request than Pfizer made days ago for its vaccine. Currently, a single booster dose of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine is authorized for emergency use on top …

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Pharma Douche Banned For Life From Public Companies

Bloomberg News reports: Martin Shkreli owes the Securities and Exchange Commission more than $1.39 million and is permanently barred from serving as a public company officer or director for his participation in “multiple” securities fraud schemes, a federal judge in New York said. He’s “unfit to serve as an officer or director of any public company,” the U.S. District Court …

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Pfizer Launches Trial Of Omicron-Specific Vaccine

Reuters reports: Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said on Tuesday they started a clinical trial to test a new version of their vaccine specifically designed to target the COVID-19 Omicron variant, which has eluded some of the protection provided by the original two-dose vaccine regimen. Banking on volunteers in the United States, the companies plan to test the immune response …

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Researchers Target Lyme Disease With mRNA Vaccine

Salon reports: Approximately 500,000 Americans are now diagnosed with Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne disease, annually — double the number of cases reported in the 1990s. A group of researchers at Yale University is trying to revive a Lyme vaccine. By using messenger RNA — the same technology that Pfizer and Moderna used in their COVID-19 vaccines — the researchers were …

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Gilead Says Some Patients Got Counterfeit HIV Meds

The Associated Press reports: Gilead Sciences Inc said an unauthorized network of drug distributors and suppliers sold pharmacies more than $250 million of counterfeit versions of its HIV treatments over the last two years, endangering patients. The drugmaker said it found 85,247 bottles that had been tampered with or faked, including versions of its Biktarvy and Descovy treatments. In a …

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Pharma Douche Banned From Industry, Must Pay $65M

The Washington Post reports: A federal judge on Friday ordered Martin Shkreli to return $64.6 million in profits he and his company reaped from inflating the price of the life-saving drug Daraprim and barred him from participating in the pharmaceutical industry for the rest of his life. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote came several weeks after a …

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FDA Authorizes Merck’s COVID Treatment Pill

CNBC reports: The Food and Drug Administration authorized on Thursday Merck’s antiviral pill to treat Covid-19 for emergency use, adding another tool to the nation’s arsenal to combat the virus. The FDA’s move comes a day after it authorized for another antiviral drug, from Pfizer. Merck’s treatment, known as molnupiravir and developed in partnership with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, is cleared for …

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BREAKING: FDA Approves Pfizer’s COVID Treatment Pill

The Associated Press reports: U.S. health regulators on Wednesday authorized the first pill against COVID-19, a Pfizer drug that Americans will be able to take at home to head off the worst effects of the virus. The drug, Paxlovid, is a faster, cheaper way to treat early COVID-19 infections, though initial supplies will be extremely limited. All of the previously …

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FDA Approves First Injectable Drug For HIV Prevention

Via press release from the FDA: Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Apretude (cabotegravir extended-release injectable suspension) for use in at-risk adults and adolescents weighing at least 35 kilograms (77 pounds) for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to reduce the risk of sexually acquired HIV. Apretude is given first as two initiation injections administered one month apart, and then every …

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New Data Shows Pfizer’s COVID Pill Highly Effective

NBC News reports: Additional data from Pfizer’s clinical trial of its oral Covid-19 antiviral drug confirm the treatment’s high level of effectiveness, the company said in a news release Tuesday. In the final analysis of its Phase 2/3 clinical trial, the antiviral, called Paxlovid, was found to be 89 percent effective at preventing high-risk people from being hospitalized or dying …

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COVID Vax Rollout Began One Year Ago This Week

The Associated Press reports:  One year ago, the biggest vaccination drive in American history began with a flush of excitement in an otherwise gloomy December. Trucks loaded with freezer-packed vials of a COVID-19 vaccine that had proved wildly successful in clinical trials fanned out across the land, bringing shots that many hoped would spell the end of the crisis. The …

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Company To Pay $40M For Price-Gouging AIDS Med

NBC News reports: A company once owned by “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli will pay up to $40 million to settle allegations that it jacked up the price of a life-saving medication by roughly 4,000% after obtaining exclusive rights to the drug, the Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday. The FTC said Vyera Pharmaceuticals LLC and its parent company, Phoenixus AG, agreed …

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