Drug Discovery and Development

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) announced today that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate protected against infection in preliminary non-human trials. The vaccine, being developed in collaboration with BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX), was tested in mouse and non-human primate models. In the non-human primate study, the BNT162b2 mRNA-based vaccine candidate protected rhesus macaques against SARS-CoV-2 infection, according to a news release. In a viral…

AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) announced today that it voluntarily paused the trials for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate after an unexplained illness. The company said in a news release that a standard review process was triggered so an independent committee could review safety data surrounding a single event of an unexplained illness that occurred in the UK Phase III…

Executives from nine different drug companies today announced a pledge to ensure safety with a potential COVID-19 vaccine. The CEOs of AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN), BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX), GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Merck (NYSE:MRK), Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA), Novavax (NSDQ:NVAX), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)  and Sanofi (NYSE:SNY), all of whom are developing vaccine candidates, all signed the pledge, which vows to “uphold the integrity of the scientific process” as…

Officials at Navitor Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, Mass.) think they could help people increase their healthy years by developing more targeted therapeutics. Products from its pipeline may soon pave the way for more effective treatments for conditions such as kidney disease, but how could the company shape the way we look at “aging gracefully?” Drug Discovery &…

Nestlé (VTX:NESN) announced today that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire food allergy treatment developer Aimmune Therapeutics (NSDQ:AIMT). Under the agreement, Nestlé Health Science (NHSc) would acquire Aimmune with a cash offer for $34.50 per share, totaling approximately $2.6 billion. The per-share price for Aimmune represents a 174% premium to the company’s closing share…

A top FDA official has threatened to resign if the Trump administration moves too quickly to approve a vaccine for COVID-19, according to a published report. Peter Marks, director of the agency’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), made the threat over concerns a vaccine would be approved without being proven safe and effective,…

Researchers at Hackensack Meridian Health are touting the drug tocilizumab as a treatment for critically ill COVID-19 patients in the ICU. Observational data of hospitalized COVID-19 patients shows that tocilizumab, generally used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and cancer, improves hospital survival in the critically ill ICU patients, according to a news release. The researchers published…

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) announced today that it entered into an agreement to purchase Momenta Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ:MNTA) for $6.5 billion. New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson will pay $6.5 billion in an all-cash transaction for the developer of novel therapies for immune-mediated diseases, according to a news release. Momenta felt the full effect of the news…

Medtech stocks helped the S&P 500 Index reach record highs today amid a bounceback from the lows of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reuters reported that medtech played its part in the record turn of the market, with Abiomed (NSDQ:ABMD), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ:REGN) and West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE:WST), all of which are involved in developing COVID-19 therapeutics, all rising more than 50% since the index’s…

The Corona Accelerated R&D in Europe (CARE) consortium today announced its launch to accelerate the development of COVID-19 treatments. Supported by the Innovative Medicines Initiative, the new consortium has collected $92.7 million (€77.7 million) in grant funding in an effort to conduct a 5-year project, bringing together 37 partners from Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Germany,…

Chinese pharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics‘ COVID-19 vaccine candidate has received a patent from the Chinese government — the first such patent granted in the country. Chinese state media outlet People’s Daily reported Sunday that the country’s National Intellectual Property Administration granted the patent for Ad5-nCoV, which uses a weakened human common cold virus to deliver genetic material that…

The FDA has approved Enspryng (satralizumab-mwge) for the treatment of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) in adults with a certain antibody — patients who are anti-aquaporin-4 or AQP4 antibody-positive. NMOSD is a rare autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that mainly affects the optic nerves and spinal cord. Enspryng, made by Genentech, is the…

Sanofi (NYSE:SNY) announced today that it agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of Principia Biopharma (NSDQ:PRNB) in a deal worth approximately $3.68 billion. The deal sets all outstanding shares of Principia at $100 per share, which will be acquired in cash. Sanofi and Principia both received unanimous approval from their respective boards of directors, according to…

CB Insights’ second annual Digital Health 150 list includes 26 startups seeking to improve drug research and development, an area hard-hit as the COVID-19 pandemic interrupts clinical trials. Drug discovery companies include Healx (rare diseases) and ProteinQure (quantum computing). (Download the full report here.) Get the full story on our sister site Medical Design & Outsourcing. …

Yale School of Medicine and AI Therapeutics announced the launch of a multi-institutional clinical trial for a drug for treating COVID-19. LAM-002A (apilimod) has a proven safety record and preliminary research has shown that it can block the cellular entry and trafficking of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is causing COVID-19, according to a news release.…

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) announced that its lead SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate protected against infection of the virus causing COVID-19 in pre-clinical studies. New Brunswick, N.J.-based J&J published data in Nature that showed the company’s investigational adenovirus serotype 26 (Ad26), vector-based vaccine elicited a robust immune response with “neutralizing antibodies” to prevent subsequent infection and provide complete or…

Sanofi (NYSE:SNY) and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) announced that they reached an agreement with the UK government to supply up to 60 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Subject to a final contract, the UK government will receive the doses of a vaccine candidate developed by the two companies in partnership and based on the recombinant protein-based technology Sanofi used to…

The Galien Foundation recently announced nominees for most innovative pharmaceutical agents for its 14th Annual Prix Galien USA Awards. The foundation bestows the Prix Galien Award annually to examples of outstanding biomedical, pharmaceutical drugs and medical technology products that are designed to improve the human condition. “As we celebrate 50 years of the Prix Galien…

John Wiley & Sons today announced the launch of its KnowItAll 2020 software for drug classification using infrared analysis. The Hoboken, N.J.-based company acquired the informatics KnowItAll spectroscopy software and spectral databases in April and is now debuting the new streamlined interface and tools to accelerate the analysis of unknown compounds, along with the drug classification…

PerkinElmer recently launched an online, open-access COVID-19 data dashboard for the global scientific community. The dashboards are powered by the company’s data analytics and data visualization solutions to help researchers quickly and easily leverage large amounts of drug compounds and clinical trial data. The COVID-19 dashboards are supported by PerkinsElmer’s Signals Lead Discovery and the…

Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) announced today that it began dosing participants in the Phase 3 clinical study of its mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Cambridge, Mass.-based Moderna’s COVE (coronavirus efficacy) study is being conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Biomedical Advanced Research…

Two U.S. government agencies today announced an agreement with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) for production and delivery of 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, along with the U.S. Defense Dept., agreed to the large-scale production and U.S. delivery deal once Pfizer’s vaccine is successfully manufactured and approved. In addition…

A federal grand jury in Spokane, Wash. has indicted two Chinese nationals on charges that they hacked into pharma companies and hundreds of other businesses, governments and organizations — in some cases on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of State Security. The 11-count indictment, which the U.S. Department of Justice announced today, alleges that Li…

Researchers at Oxford University say early-stage results from a Phase I/II clinical trial of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate display safety and strong immune responses. Results, published in The Lancet, revealed that the vaccine is safe, causes few side effects and induces strong immune responses in both parts of the immune system in the fight against COVID-19,…

Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) is exploring selling its snake antivenom products business, according to Bloomberg, which cited anonymous sources. A Boston Sci spokesperson told MassDevice via email that the company has a practice of not commenting on speculation. Boston Scientific acquired the antivenom business during its $4 billion acquisition of BTG, which closed last year. Its products include CroFab, touted as the…