Illumina (Nasdaq:ILMN) announced last week that it launched its new NovaSeq X series of production-scale sequencers. San Diego-based Illumina said its new sequencers “push the limits of what is possible with genomic medicine.” NovaSeq X and NovaSeq X Plus offer faster, more powerful and more sustainable sequencing. The latter can generate more than 20,000 whole…
Eisai and Biogen report positive Phase 3 trial results for new Alzheimer’s drug
Eisai and Biogen (Nasdaq:BIIB) today announced positive topline data from a Phase 3 trial of lecanemab for Alzheimer’s disease. BIIB shares are skyrocketing on the back of the data today. They are up 37.6% at $272.12 apiece in mid-afternoon trading. Lecanemab is an investigational anti-amyloid beta (Aβ) protofibril antibody. The global Phase 3 confirmatory Clarity…
Analysts are bullish on Eli Lilly with its ‘transformative’ drugs
UBS recently issued a report upgrading Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) to a “Buy” rating as its diabetes and Alzheimer’s drugs present lucrative opportunities. According to the report, the pharmaceutical giant’s Mounjaro (tirzepatide) “could be the biggest drug ever.” The type 2 diabetes treatment received FDA approval in May. GlobalData said at the time that tirzepatide could…
Medtronic appoints Pfizer EVP as independent board director
Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) announced today that it appointed Lidia Fonseca to its board of directors as an independent director. Fonseca, who serves as EVP and chief digital and technology officer at Pfizer, will become a director effective today. She will serve on the board’s Compensation Committee and Science and Technology Committee. Get the full story on our…
Pfizer completes ReViral acquisition
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) announced today that it completed its previously announced $525 million acquisition of ReViral. ReViral, a biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops and commercializes novel antiviral therapeutics designed to target respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Its portfolio includes the sisunatovir oral inhibitor for blocking the fusion of the RSV virus to the host cell. Sisunatovir has fast track…
U of Maryland scientist to set up NIH’s new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health
U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it formed a new research project agency for health. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra announced the formal establishment of the Advanced Research Project Agency for Health (ARPA-H) as an independent entity within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Adam H. Russell was appointed as acting deputy…
Pfizer ticks up on Street-beating Q1, lessens full-year guidance
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) shares rose today on first-quarter financial results that came in ahead of the consensus forecast. The New York-based pharmaceutical company posted profits of $7.9 billion, or $1.37 per share, on sales of $25.7 billion for the three months ended April 3, 2022, for a 61.2% bottom-line gain on sales growth of 76.8%. Adjusted…
FDA issues draft guidance for increasing racial and ethnic diversity in clinical trials
The FDA today issued a new draft guidance outlining plans for increased diversity in clinical trials in the U.S. Expanding upon previous guidances for improving clinical trial diversity, this latest draft guidance — “Diversity Plans to Improve Enrollment of Participants from Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Subgroups in Clinical Trials” — recommends that sponsors of medical…
Dentsply CFO Jorge Gomez leaves to assume same role at Moderna
Moderna (Nasdaq:MRNA) announced today that it appointed Jorge Gomez as its new chief financial officer. Gomez resigned as CFO of Dentsply Sirona (Nasdaq:XRAY), effective May 6, to assume the same role at Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna. He will join effective May 9. Dentsply Sirona said in a news release that it is initiating a search process…
Pfizer to Acquire ReViral and Its Respiratory Syncytial Virus Therapeutic Candidates
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) announced today that it entered into an agreement to acquire biopharmaceutical company ReViral. ReViral discovers, develops and commercializes novel antiviral therapeutics designed to target respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). “At Pfizer, we have a strong heritage in, and commitment to, fighting infectious diseases, most recently evidenced by our delivery of the first authorized vaccine…
Janssen reports positive clinical trial data for its Xarelto to treat PAD effects
Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE:JNJ) Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies recently announced analysis data on the benefits of Xarelto. The Phase 3 Voyager PAD clinical trial evaluated the Xarelto (rivaroxaban) vascular dose (2.5 mg twice daily plus aspirin 100 mg once daily) in reducing severe vascular events in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) after lower-extremity revascularization (LER).…
Johnson & Johnson is bringing the world’s first drug-eluting contact lens to market
Johnson & Johnson has a potential alternative to eye drops with its drug-eluting Acuvue Theravision contact lens. As far back as the early 1960s, researchers toyed with the idea of delivering medication through contact lenses. Johnson & Johnson Vision (NYSE:JNJ) Director of Clinica Science Dr. Brian Pall told Drug Delivery Business News that patents back then disclosed how…
PhysIQ and CellCarta think wearables and AI could produce vaccine insights
PhysIQ announced today that it will collaborate with CellCarta to undertake a study using AI in vaccine development. Enrollment is now complete in the VIII (Vaccine-induced inflammation investigation), which will monitor individual differences in physiologic changes associated with immune system activation in patients receiving vaccinations, including those developed to combat diseases like COVID-19. According to…
NIH to study allergic reactions to COVID-19 mRNA vaccine
Researchers from the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) are conducting a clinical trial on allergic reactions to mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines. The single-site trial will enroll up to 100 people between 16 and 69 years old who had an allergic reaction to a first dose of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. NIAID seeks participants…
J&J expands it long-acting injectables partnership with Midatech
Midatech Pharma (Nasdaq:MTP) announced today that it extended its R&D collaboration with Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE:JNJ) Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Cardiff, United Kingdom-based Midatech, a drug delivery technology company focused on the biodelivery and biodistribution of medicines, initially entered into the R&D collaboration with Janssen on July 21, 2020. Get the full story at our sister site, Drug Delivery Business News.
MIT researchers come up with new strategy to create a potential antibiotic
Researchers at MIT are touting a novel method to synthesize a natural compound that has shown potential as an antibiotic. The chemists produced himastatin using the synthesis method and also managed to generate variants of the molecule, some of which showed antimicrobial activity, according to a news story from the university’s website. The compound appears…
Moderna skyrockets on Street-beating Q4 driven by COVID-19 vaccine sales
Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) shares are on the rise on fourth-quarter results that came in ahead of the consensus forecast. MRNA shares were up 11.7% at $161.51 per share in midday trading today. MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — was up 1.1%. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company posted…
PharmaJet partner touts interim safety results for needle-free COVID-19 vaccine
PharmaJet announced today that its partner, Technovalia, reported positive interim safety results from a needle-free COVID-19 vaccine trial. Golden, Colorado-based PharmaJet’s needle-free injection systems are being studied with Covigen, a DNA-based vaccine developed by French-Thai pharmaceutical company BioNet-Asia in collaboration with Melbourne, Australia-based Technovalia. Enrollment for the trial began in June 2021. Get the full story at…
Pfizer dips on Q4 revenue miss, provides 2022 guidance
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) shares slid today on fourth-quarter results that came up shy of the consensus sales forecast. The pharmaceutical giant posted profits of $3.4 billion, or 59¢ per share, on sales of $23.8 billion for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2021, more than quadrupling its bottom-line on revenues that were more than doubled year-over-year.…
Medable and CVS Health partner to expand clinical trial access
Medable and CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) announced yesterday that they will collaborate to expand clinical trial access and engagement. Under the collaboration, Medable’s software platform will be combined with CVS Health’s community reach and experienced MinuteClinic providers to deliver clinical trials in a manner that improves patient access, engagement and retention. According to a news release,…
New AI out of MIT predicts how proteins will attach
MIT researchers are touting a machine learning model that can predict the complex that will form when proteins bind together. The technique represents an improvement on speed by somewhere between 80 and 500 times faster than state-of-the-art software methods and often predicts protein structures that are closer to actual structures that have been observed experimentally…
Could nasal vaccines be the next big weapon against COVID-19?
Because of the way they provide protection, nasal vaccines could be the best long-term way to prevent COVID-19 infection, according to experts cited in The New York Times. The Times reported that India-based Bharat Biotech, which has the Covaxin COVID-19 vaccine authorized in India and elsewhere, has an experimental COVID-19 nasal vaccine that may offer…
FDA fully approves Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine
Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) announced today that it received full FDA approval of the biologics license application for its COVID-19 vaccine. FDA’s approval for the company’s Spikevax mRNA COVID-19 vaccine covers the prevention of the virus in individuals aged 18 years or older. Moderna submitted for full FDA approval back in June 2021 and becomes the second…
BD boasts of a landmark advancement in flow cytometry
BD (NYSE:BDX) touted a study on innovation in flow cytometry that featured as the cover story of the journal Science. Franklin Lakes, New Jersey-based BD’s study was conducted in collaboration with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). It evaluated BD’s flow cytometry efforts that add fluorescence imaging and image-based decision-making to sort individual cells at high…
NeuroMetrix’s Quell wins FDA breakthrough designation to treat certain chemo side effects
NeuroMetrix (NSDQ:NURO) announced today that it received FDA breakthrough device designation for its Quell technology. Woburn, Massachusetts-based NeuroMetrix’s Quell garnered the breakthrough nod for reducing moderate-to-severe symptoms of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) that have persisted for at least six months following the end of chemotherapy. Get the full story at our sister site, MassDevice.