US biotechnology company Gritstone Bio has received a contract from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to conduct a Phase 2b comparative study evaluating the company’s self-amplifying mRNA (samRNA) vaccine candidate against Covid-19.
Chinese drugmaker CSPC Pharmaceutical announced on Jun. 28, 2023, that it has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Pfizer to launch a local brand of the Covid-19 oral therapeutic treatment Paxlovid in China. The goal is to improve access to this treatment in China.
The European Commission and vaccine makers Pfizer and BioNTech have reached agreement on amending the bloc’s 2021 supply deal for the duo’s Comirnaty mRNA-based shot. The compromise that extends the last planned delivery date to 2026 follows months of discussion, with member states urging the Commission to renegotiate the controversial deal.
Pfizer's oral anti-viral Covid-19 treatment Paxlovid has won full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after Emergency Use Authorization was granted in late 2021.
The market value of US vaccine maker Novavax is gaining momentum again on the back of promising data the company recently provided on its combined Covid and flu vaccine data.
An analysis of British records for December 2020-May 2022 is said to show that young women aged 12-29 who received at least one dose of AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine may have been more likely to die of a heart problem. However, the findings may not apply to the entire population.
Examples of national logistics solutions in the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium show how high availability and low costs can be brought down to a common denominator.
Under US president Joe Biden, the Department of Justice has been moving energetically of late to uncover and prosecute offenses that might otherwise have been swept under heavy rugs, including Covid-related API manufacturing contracts won under unclear circumstances.
German biotech CureVac has released preliminary data from its ongoing cooperation with UK drugmaker GSK on a new class of “transformative medicines” based on messenger mRNA.
As it continues to leverage earnings from its top-selling mRNA-based Covid vaccine to deepen its existing knowhow, Mainz, Germany-based BioNtech has announced plans to acquire all of London-based artificial intelligence specialist InstaDeep.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for the updated Covid-19 vaccines of both Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna in children aged six months to five years.
As Covid cases continue to explode across the country, China Meheco Group Co, an internationally active manufacturer and distributor of pharmaceuticals chemicals and biologicals as well as Chinese traditional medical products, has struck a deal with Pfizer to distribute the US pharma giant’s oral antiviral Paxlovid in the People’s Republic.
Faced with a lawsuit from US rival Moderna, alleging that Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech infringed one of its patent for their top-selling Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty, the New York US drugs giant said in a court filing that Comirnaty was based on independent research and wasn’t a Moderna copy.
Two weeks after annnouncing that it would no longer seek to market its Covid-19 vaccine in the US, Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca has unveiled plans to sell its production site at West Chester, Ohio, to privately-held biomanufacturing company National Resilience.
AstraZeneca (AZ) has announced it is permanently backing away from any plans to sell its Vaxzevria-branded Covid-19 vaccine in the US.
German Covid-19 vaccine specialist BioNTech has acquired a production facility in Singapore from Swiss drugmaker Novartis that will serve as a manufacturing base in addition to being its Asia-Pacific headquarters.
After several delays and restarts and a lengthy review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Covid-19 vaccine called VidPrevtyn Beta developed by the French-British partnership of Sanofi and GSK has been greenlighted by the European Commission.
UK health regulator Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech bivalent Covid-19 vaccine for use as a booster in people 12 years and older.
The newly launched bivalent mRNA-based Covid-19 booster shots from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech did not show a major improvement over the companies’ first-generation vaccines targeting the original strain, a small US study conducted by Columbia University and the University of Michigan has found. Detailed data have not yet been released.
In response to what it describes as a “challenging macroeconomic environment” marked by continuing erosion of consumer sentiment in Europe and the lack of any meaningful recovery in Asia following the Covid-19 lockdowns in the first half of 2022, US plastics producer Trinseo said it is evaluating its asset footprint to improve its economic position and operating flexibility.
The European Public Prosecutors Office (EPPO) has confirmed that it is looking into the EU Commission’s ordering of Covid-19 vaccines, with the probe thought to pertain in particular to order activity outside the usual purchasing channels.
US drugs giant Merck & Co has granted Sinopharm exclusive import and distribution rights to its oral Covid treatment Lagevrio (molnupiravir) in China.
German science and technology company Merck has announced plans to invest more than €130 million at its site in Molsheim, France, to expand capacities for single-use assemblies, a key technology for producing Covid-19 vaccines and other therapies.
Days before the FDA approved the new bivalent Covid-19 vaccine boosters, Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, offered his own assessment of the need for such.
As had been widely expected, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Aug. 31 granted emergency use authorizations (EUAs) to the new Covid-19 shots developed by mRNA vaccine makers Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
CureVac and GSK have announced they are launching a Phase 1 clinical trial with their modified mRNA-based Covid 19 vaccine CV051, which would be recommended as a booster to protect against the omicron variant.
Pfizer and BioNTech have filed an application with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for approval of the Comirnaty Covid-19 vaccine in children aged six months to five years.
It took longer than expected, but the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on July 13 finally granted an Emergency Authorization (EUA) to Nuaxovid, the protein-based sCovid-19 shot developed by Novavax.
While Europe still deliberates, and municipalities monitor sewage to pinpoint the further spread of coronavirus subvariants, especially those evolving from the omicron variant, the US Food and Drug Administration’s advisory panel has voted 19-2 to recommend that the government’s autumn vaccination program be based on the second generation mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
UK specialty chemical company Croda International will receive up to $75 million from the US government to expand its US capacity to produce ingredients for lipid systems used in novel therapeutic drugs, such as mRNA vaccines.
Sanofi and GSK are touting their latecomer protein-based Covid-19 vaccine as a potential game changer in the fight against the Omicron variant.
In a vote of 21 in favor with one abstention, the US Food and Drug Administration’s advisory panel has recommended that the FDA approve Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine Nuaxovid for emergency use. If the health agency agrees, it would be the fourth such shot available in the US, joining the mRNA products of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna and the viral vector shot of Johnson & Johnson’s pharma subsidiary Janssen.
The governing board of the World Health Organization (WHO) has agreed to form a new committee to help speed up the response to health emergencies such as Covid-19. The action addresses criticism of the agency’s perceived slowness to act during the early phase of the coronavirus before it became a full-blown global pandemic.
Dorothee Arns, Director General of FECC, discusses current challenges, market trends and her vision for the chemical distribution industry in Europe. The interview was conducted by Michael Reubold and Ralf Kempf.
When the pandemic was pounding at their doors, many industries were rattled. Healthcare and chemicals were adapting rather successfully to the new normal, as a McKinsey & Company survey reveals.
