Brian Buntz

Abbott Laboratories has obtained a temporary restraining order against a former marketing executive. The company alleges the former employee stole trade secrets, including details of upcoming COVID-19 products, before accepting a role at a competitor. Virginia Kendall, a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, decided to grant the two-week restraining order against…

Amgen (NSDQ:AMGN) announced third-quarter earnings per share of $4.37, beating the consensus forecast of $3.80. Biosimilars growth and a strong base business drove growth in the quarter ending on Sept. 30. The company has been relatively steady in 2020, growing 11% in the first quarter and 6% in the second. “Our performance in the third quarter…

The pharmaceutical industry stands at a crossroads as Election Day nears in the U.S. The election could ultimately have sweeping implications for the sector, or it could yield only modest changes. While the presidential election could have a significant influence on the pharma sector, arguably more important is who gains control of Congress. A blue…

Biotech firm Gilead Sciences is on the defensive as its revenue surges thanks to the COVID-19 drug Veklury, better known as remdesivir. Several press outlets are skeptical of the promise of remdesivir, the first COVID-19 treatment to win FDA approval. This week, Healthline questioned whether FDA should have approved the drug. The New York Times…

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) has revealed that it has not yet performed an interim analysis for its vaccine candidate. The news — out Oct. 27 — comes after the company’s CEO Albert Bourla had repeatedly hinted that such data would be available by October. An independent data monitoring committee has a threshold for when to perform such…

Sanofi (NSDQ:SNY) and GSK (LON: GSK), which have teamed up to produce a COVID-19 vaccine candidate, have signaled their intent to work with the legal administrator of the COVAX Facility. The two companies have vowed to produce 200 million doses of a vaccine based on the protein subunit AS03 adjuvant.  Governments, businesses and health organizations…

Rand Europe, WHO and the president of Germany recently warned against vaccine nationalism. The cost of nationalistic tendencies to hoard vaccines and prioritize vaccines for their citizenry could lead to a global reduction in gross domestic product of $1.2 trillion, according to the nonprofit think tank Rand Europe. By contrast, the global economic penalty of…

A monoclonal antibody that blocks the activation of the skeletal muscle protein myostatin could be novel muscle-directed therapy for spinal muscular atrophy patients.  Cambridge, Mass.–based Scholar Rock (NSDQ:SRRK), which makes the SRK-015 investigational antibody, saw its shares more than double to $30.02 apiece yesterday. SRK-015 could lead to the formation of a new treatment category…

An arm of NIH has ended a clinical trial investigating the use of Eli Lilly’s (NYSE:LLY) monoclonal antibody LY-CoV555 (bamlanivimab) to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients. In separate news, HHS plans to allocate 300,000 doses of the monoclonal antibody immediately, according to an announcement. While the drug shows promise in treating mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infections, the ACTIV-3 trial…

AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) announced today that its potential COVID-19 vaccine prompts an immune response in older and younger adults.  The vaccine candidate is currently in a Phase 3 trial.  In September, the company had put its vaccine trial on hold after a U.K. participant suffered neurological symptoms. But the AZD1222 vaccine candidate appears to be safe based on…

 Bayer (FRA: BAYN) announced today that it will acquire gene therapy startup AskBio for an upfront payment of $2 billion. The German life sciences giant could shell out an additional $2 billion if the startup meets specific criteria. Rather than folding AskBio’s operations into its own, Bayer stressed in a statement that the startup would operate independently…

There was no clear bombshell in the first meeting of an FDA advisory committee dedicated to COVID-19 vaccines. There were, however, several conclusions.  Known as the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBAC), the meeting yesterday provided an overview of the steps medical and government authorities are taking to approve COVID-19 vaccines.  Here are…

An independent panel advising FDA is sharing its perspective on the approval process for COVID-19 vaccine. Much of the virtual Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) meeting is focused on the complexities of the pandemic and regulatory best practices. The optic of an independent panel of scientists discussing the prospect of safe and…

Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial has hit a roadblock. Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) learned that contractors it had hired failed to recruit sufficient numbers of minorities for the 30,000-person study, according to a Reuters report. The lack of Black, Latinos and Native American patients led the company to tap academic researchers with ties to diverse communities. Moderna didn’t…

The U.S. pharmaceutical industry has fared better than most sectors in 2020, but the industry still faces tailwinds, according to recent IQVIA research. Total prescription sales are down 2.1% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2020 to date, according to an analysis of the IQVIA data by the investment bank UBS. New prescriptions…

The pharma industry has put its weight behind Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, reversing a longstanding fundraising trend that has favored the GOP. Republican candidates have received 64% of pharma industry contributions since 1990, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets. But the industry is shifting its support to Democrats in 2020. So far,…