Tag Archives: pharma

STAT News reports: Pfizer and partner BioNTech said Monday that their vaccine against Covid-19 was strongly effective, exceeding expectations with results that are likely to be met with cautious excitement — and relief — in the face of the global pandemic. The vaccine is the first to be tested in the United States to generate late-stage data. The companies said …

The New York Times reports: Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges of defrauding federal health agencies and violating anti-kickback laws, and faces penalties of roughly $8.3 billion, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday. The company’s owners, members of the wealthy Sackler family, will pay $225 million in civil penalties. Still, it is …

The Guardian reports: More than £30m of UK government money is to fund the world’s first Covid-19 “challenge trials”, in which healthy young volunteers are intentionally infected with the virus to hasten the development of a vaccine. The trials have the potential to yield results more quickly than conventional vaccine field trials in which researchers must wait for participants to …

NBC News reports: CVS Health said Monday it plans to immediately hire 15,000 employees to prepare for an expected rise in Covid-19 and flu cases this fall and winter. More than 10,000 of those will be full-time and part-time licensed pharmacy technicians who can help dispense medications and administer Covid-19 tests. The larger workforce could also help CVS prepare for …

Reuters reports: Pfizer expects to provide safety data and file for authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine it is developing with German partner BioNTech in late November, delaying any clarity on the vaccine until after the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election. The regulatory filing for the vaccine could come as soon as safety data is available in the third week of …

CNBC reports: Eli Lilly’s late-stage trial of its leading monoclonal antibody treatment for the coronavirus has been paused by U.S. health regulators over potential safety concerns, the company confirmed to CNBC on Tuesday. “Safety is of the utmost importance to Lilly. We are aware that, out of an abundance of caution, the ACTIV-3 independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB) has …

Reuters reports: Johnson & Johnson has paused clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine candidate due to an unexplained illness in a study participant, delaying one of the highest profile efforts to contain the global pandemic. The move comes around a month after AstraZeneca AZN.L also suspended trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine – which uses a similar technology – due …

The Washington Post reports: A coronavirus vaccine being developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company SinoVac will be ready for worldwide distribution by early next year, its CEO said Thursday. The vaccine, dubbed CoronaVac, is one of four in China that is still undergoing a third and final round of testing, a global standard necessary before it can be widely distributed. …

Reuters reports: Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday kicked off a final 60,000-person trial of a single-shot COVID-19 vaccine that potentially would simplify distribution of millions of doses compared with leading rivals using two doses. The company expects results of the Phase III trial by year end or early next year, Dr. Paul Stoffels, J&J’s chief scientific officer, said in a …

Axios reports: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Sunday that his company will know whether its coronavirus vaccine is effective by the end of October and that it has already manufactured hundreds of thousands of doses in anticipation that the vaccine will receive FDA approval. Why it matters: There has been a major push by the …

CNBC reports: Phase three trials for AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine have resumed in the U.K. after they were halted earlier this week over safety concerns, the company announced Saturday. AstraZeneca said it received confirmation from the United Kingdom’s Medicines Health Regulatory Authority that it was safe to resume clinical trials. The company declined to disclose medical information about the pause of …

STAT News reports: A large, Phase 3 study testing a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford at dozens of sites across the U.S. has been put on hold due to a suspected serious adverse reaction in a participant in the United Kingdom. A spokesperson for AstraZeneca, a frontrunner in the race for a Covid-19 vaccine, …

Bloomberg reports: The pharmaceutical industry’s leading lobby group said Tuesday it did not know of a meeting at the White House to discuss lowering prescription drug prices, after President Donald Trump said executives were coming in this week to negotiate. “We are not aware of any meeting,” said Nicole Longo, a spokeswoman for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Trump …

Reuters reports: U.S. states claimed they are owed $2.2 trillion to address harm from OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP’s alleged role in America’s opioid epidemic, accusing the drugmaker in new filings of pushing prescription painkillers on doctors and patients while playing down the risks of abuse and overdose. In filings made as part of Purdue’s bankruptcy proceedings that were disclosed …

Barron’s Daily reports: A small biotech called Sorrento Therapeutics announced Wednesday that it had licensed a Covid-19 test from Columbia University that, according to a small study, can provide highly accurate results in thirty minutes using only a person’s saliva. In an interview Monday, Sorrento CEO Dr. Henry Ji said that the test could eventually be used to test people …

The New York Times reports: An experimental coronavirus vaccine made by the biotech company Moderna provoked a promising immune response against the virus and appeared safe in the first 45 people who received it, researchers reported on Tuesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. Moderna’s vaccine, developed with researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was …

The Associated Press reports: Jonathan Sackler, one of the owners of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, has died, the company confirmed. Sackler died June 30, according to a court filing. He was 65 and the cause of death was cancer. He was the son of Raymond Sackler, one the brothers who bought drug company Purdue Frederick in 1952, and served as …

The Associated Press reports: The maker of a drug shown to shorten recovery time for severely ill COVID-19 patients says it will charge $2,340 for a typical treatment course for people covered by government health programs in the United States and other developed countries. Gilead Sciences announced the price Monday for remdesivir, and said the price would be $3,120 for …

Reuters reports: Dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, has become the first drug shown to be able to save lives among COVID-19 patients in what scientists hailed as a “major breakthrough”. Results of trials announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases, reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely …

The Hill reports: The final testing stage for a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by Moderna is set to begin in July, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. John Mascola, the director of the vaccine research center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Journal that the trials will involve about 30,000 people at more than 50 …