Reportedly flush with Covid-19 vaccine revenues, Pfizer will shell out approximately $6.7 billion in cash to buy San Diego-based Arena Pharmaceuticals, the companies announced Monday. The acquisition will boost Pfizer’s Inflammation and Immunology program, the press release said.
Pfizer will also invest $68.5 million to build a gene therapy manufacturing facility in North Carolina, the New York-headquartered company announced Wednesday…
The African Union and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention convened regional and international stakeholders in Rwanda last week to discuss progress on boosting vaccine manufacturing on the continent.
A joint communiqué underscored successes to date, saying the Partnership for Africa Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) had struck deals between multinational and local companies and established WHO training and manufacturing “hubs.”…
Bluebird Bio’s gene therapy for sickle cell disease led to complete resolution of severe vaso-occlusive events and reduced hemolysis in a Phase 1/2 study, the Massachusetts company announced Sunday.
Bluebird presented the data on lovo-cel (formerly LentiGlobin) at the 63rd American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting (ASH) and in the New England Journal of Medicine. The company noted that cases of acute myeloid leukemia in two people…
The state of the fight:
AUTHORIZED VACCINES
Mixing the AstraZeneca/Oxford or Pfizer/BioNTech…
Boston University has published the last of its annual reports evaluating the progress of Access Accelerated, the industry-led initiative to address noncommunicable disease burdens in LMICs.
The 2021 Access Observatory identified 61 active access programs, with a majority focused on cancer. That number represents a decline from 75 active programs in 2019 and 73 in 2018. The report cited the “unprecedented” challenge of Covid-19 as…
India’s Hilleman Laboratories is setting up in Singapore, a company press release said Monday. The Merck and Wellcome joint venture is investing $58 million over the next five years to develop a 30,000-square-foot facility focused on R&D and clinical trials “up to Phase II stage.” Expected to be fully operational by early 2023, the site will develop “affordable, high-value vaccines and biologics for Singapore as well as low- and middle-…
China again exacted concessions from drugmakers, with pharmas agreeing to price cuts averaging 62% in exchange for adding 67 branded drugs to its national medical insurance program, per a Reuters article last week.
Additions to the national reimbursement drugs list included J&J’s cancer drug Darzalex and three new indications for Eli Lilly’s sintilimab, a monoclonal antibody.
Lilly appeared eager to comply with what Reuters…
Three major pharmas have shared end-of-year environmental, social and governance announcements over the past weeks.
Merck invested a new round of $150 million in essential maternal and reproductive health services funding for 25 million women by 2025 through its Merck for Mothers program.
Meanwhile, Takeda launched a new U.S. corporate social responsibility program with a first-year commitment of $20 million for “health equity,…
SAB Biotherapeutics’ novel anti-influenza fully human IgG intravenous immunotherapy succeeded in Phase 2a, the South Dakota-based company announced last week.
The SAB-176 polyclonal antibody—for moderate to severe seasonal flu A and B—significantly reduced viral load and clinical symptoms compared to placebo in adults challenged with a pandemic flu strain, the press release said.
Sanofi shared substantial growth expectations in immunization during its vaccine investors day last week.
Through a combination of new vaccines and increased sales of existing products, Sanofi "expects to more than double its vaccine sales by the end of the decade," for a total vaccines business size of almost $57 billion by 2030, FiercePharma reported.
The company sees mRNA, pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs), and RSV as…
Retired Serum Institute of India (SII) executive Suresh Jadhav died Tuesday at age 72, per local media.
CEO Adar Poonawalla praised the late executive director on social media as “a guiding light” for SII and the Indian vaccine industry.
SII founder Cyrus Poonawalla credited Jadhav with a “pivotal role” in WHO prequalification of several company products, according to the Indian Express. Jadhav was also “instrumental” in setting…
The state of the fight:
AUTHORIZED VACCINES
New research on the Pfizer/BioNTech shot…
The Access to Medicine (AtM) Foundation has released its 2021 antimicrobial resistance benchmark report evaluating 17 of the industry’s most active players in the AMR space.
GSK maintained its lead among multinational corporations, although Pfizer leaped from sixth to a close second place after making “significant strides” in stewardship, waste management, drug access, R&D and data sharing. The AtM Foundation praised Pfizer as the…
The Lancet published Phase 3 data on Monday showing that co-administration of ivermectin and albendazole had higher efficacy against T. trichiura than albendazole alone in two of the three regions in the study.
Compared to albendazole monotherapy (the current standard of care), the combination outperformed in Laos (66% vs. 8%) and on Tanzania’s Pemba Island (49% vs. 6%) against the roundworm, but yielded no added benefit in Côte d’…
GSK on Tuesday announced Phil Dormitzer as its new global head of vaccines R&D.
Dormitzer joins the multinational from Pfizer, where he was vice president and chief scientific officer for RNA and viral vaccines—and a key figure behind Pfizer's Covid-19 shot. He will report to GSK CSO Hal Barron starting this week.
FierceBiotech said the move is a boost to GSK after a "mini exodus" from the company that included losing former…
Several manufacturers expanded their operations in the United States, per announcements and media reports last week.
First, U.S. multinational BD plans to boost its San Diego presence with a new 220,000-square-foot biosciences R&D facility, expected to open by end-2023, Fierce Biotech reported. Also, Chinese cancer specialist BeiGene said it is expanding its New Jersey footprint with a 400,000-square-foot, “state-of-the-art”…
Merck has halted development of its MK-8507 investigational HIV drug after seeing a decrease in certain white blood cells in Phase 2 participants who took the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor in combination with islatravir, another Merck HIV drug candidate, the company announced in November.
A press release said Merck “remains confident in islatravir’s overall profile” and will continue development of the nucleoside drug…
The U.S. FDA has granted priority review to Merck’s 15-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) as the agency evaluates the shot for children and adolescents ages 6 weeks to 17 years, the company announced Wednesday.
Marketed as Vaxneuvance, the jab won FDA approval for use in adults in July, just weeks after Pfizer’s 20-valent vaccine became the first next-gen PCV to cross the finish line.
Novo Nordisk will swallow up Massachusetts-based drugmaker Dicerna for $3.3 billion in cash, the Danish company announced in November.
The companies partnered in 2019 to develop RNA interference (RNAi) therapies using Dicerna’s proprietary technology, which Novo will acquire as part of the deal, according to its press release.
The acquisition is the latest in a slew of big-ticket purchases for Novo Nordisk, including a $1.35…
A new Phase 1 trial in Mali of Sanaria’s PfSPZ malaria shot showed a three-dose regimen was well-tolerated and conferred 51% vaccine efficacy against intense natural P. falciparum transmission, according to a Lancet Infectious Diseases article published in mid-November.
The results are in line with earlier studies using the five-dose regimen, per the authors.