Drug Discovery

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…

Boston, San Francisco and San Diego remain the leading U.S. life science hubs — hauling in 70% of all the venture capital in the space last year, according to a new report from commercial real estate services company JLL. Venture capital funding matters, according to JLL, because it fuels innovative companies that then require more…

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…

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,…

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) posted second-quarter results today that beat the consensus forecast on Wall Street — boosting its outlook for the year even as its medical device sales took a big hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. The New Brunswick, N.J.–based medical device and pharmaceutical giant reported profits of $3.6 billion, or $1.36 per share, on…

Clinical research outfit Remington-Davis recently announced that it has launched a dedicated 3,000 ft2 space in Columbus, Ohio for COVID-19 clinical trials. The space includes six private overnight rooms, patient lounge, dedicated laboratory, oxygen therapy and more. Participants must be 18 or older with COVID-19 symptoms and have a laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV2 infection. “We were not…

Plakous Therapeutics announced that it received more than $1.7 million in a research grant from he Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Phase I-II fast-track small business innovation research (SBIR) grant, worth up to $1.725 million, is slated to help Plakous develop…

  Novartis (NYSE:NVS) and Alexion Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ:ALXN) were charged with violations of the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that the pharmaceutical companies both committed violations and both agreed to pay millions of dollars to settle the charges. Novartis settled to…

A new collaboration funded by in part by $1.1 million from the FDA is working on finding new uses for existing drugs for areas of high unmet medical need — with a pilot project focused on treatments for COVID-19. The Critical Path Institute (C-Path) this week announced the launch of the CURE Drug Repurposing Collaboratory…

Merck (NYSE:MRK) announced today that it completed the acquisition of vaccine and immune-modulation therapy developer Themis for an undisclosed amount. In connection with the acquisition, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission granted early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, while Merck gained merger control from the Austrian Federal Competition Authority,…

Beckman Coulter announced this week that its Access SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody assay received CE Mark approval and is commercially available in Europe. Brea, Calif.-based Beckman Coulter said in a news release that it already shipped tests to more than 400 hospitals, clinics and diagnostic laboratories in the U.S. and has begun to ship around the…

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) said they identified a promising anti-viral cocktail therapy against COVID-19. According to a news release, the researchers evaluated several human antibodies to determine the most potent combination to be mixed and used against SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19. In collaboration with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ:REGN), UMSOM published…

Oxford researchers announced today that, following testing with thousands of patients, dexamethasone may improve patient survival in cases of COVID-19. Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid commonly used for treating arthritis and other cases of inflammation. In total, 2,104 patients were randomized in Oxford’s trial to receive dexamethasone in doses of 6 mg, once per day, either…

Q2 Solutions recently announced a partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific to use the Ion Torrent Genexus System — touted as the first fully integrated, next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform — to quickly and economically deliver clinical trial lab results. “Clinical trial oncology patients require lab testing before they can receive potential life-saving treatments, which makes lab…

Grifols (NSDQ:GRFS) announced today that it began production of its anti-SARS-CoV-2 hyperimmune immunoglobulin with specific antibodies for combating COVID-19. Barcelona-based Grifols touts the prevention drug, developed from the plasma of people who have overcome the disease, as the first specific drug developed to fight COVID-19, according to a news release. The company is producing the potential…

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ:REGN) announced today that it initiated the first clinical trial of its dual antibody cocktail for preventing COVID-19. The REGN-COV2 clinical program will include populations of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, non-hospitalized symptomatic COVID-19 patients, uninfected people in groups that have a high risk of exposure (healthcare workers or first responders, for example) and uninfected people…

Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) announced today that it expects to begin dosing in Phase 3 of the clinical trial for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in July. The Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech company said in a news release that it finalized the Phase 3 study protocol for the mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine candidate based on feedback from the FDA. The…

Some alarm appears to be growing amid the rush to develop COVID-19 vaccines, with two prominent critics warning that politics could harm the process. In a New. York Times op-ed this week, Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Dr. Paul A. Offit of the University of Pennsylvania worried that potential pressure to produce good news for…

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) announced today that its Janssen Pharmaceutical subsidiary has moved up first-in-human clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate to late July, versus the previously planned start in September. “Based on the strength of the preclinical data we have seen so far and interactions with the regulatory authorities, we have been able to…