After living through the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year, it’s understandable that most people consider viruses to be our enemies causing illness and harm to humans. However, this outlook fails to consider the many surprising advantages these submicroscopic collections of genetic code afford scientists in pushing the boundaries of medicine. Viruses have honed advantageous…
Activist shareholder aims to drive shakeup at immunotherapy firm IMV
Dr. Michael Gross, an activist shareholder of immunotherapy specialist IMV (NSDQ:IMV), has launched an offensive intended to cause a leadership shakeup at the company. Gross released a press release on June 1 announcing his plans to oust the company’s board chair Andy Sheldon and the chair of the board’s compensation committee, Julia Gregory. The director…
Corbus Pharmaceuticals adds two mAbs to its pipeline
Corbus Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ:CRBP) is expanding its pipeline in immuno-oncology and fibrotic disease with licensing deals for two monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), which it has named CRB-601 and CRB-602. Both mAbs target integrins that inhibit activation of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), a cytokine linked to inflammation, fibrosis and cancer. “TGF beta needs to be activated from its…
Merck facing off with Pfizer with pneumococcal vaccines
Pfizer’s (NSE:PFE) pneumococcal 13-valent conjugate vaccine Prevnar 13 brought in $5.85 billion last year, but Merck (NYSE:MRK) is hoping to increase its presence in the market with its investigational 15-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. Although Merck has a pneumococcal vaccine on the market known as Pneumovax 23, its sales were $1.1 billion last year. While technically a…
FDA approves Janssen’s Rybrevant for subset of non-small cell lung cancer
Rybrevant, a novel fully-human bispecific antibody from the Janssen division of Johnson & Johnson, became the first treatment for people with non-small cell lung cancer with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 20 insertion mutations. In particular, the indication covers such cancer that has progressed on or after platinum-based chemotherapy. The agency also approved the…
25 promising pipeline drugs
The pandemic has heightened interest in COVID-19 therapies, sometimes stealing attention from other pharmaceutical breakthroughs. But the pandemic has also served as a reminder that investment in new drugs can pay dividends while leading to a greater societal appreciation for the industry. A 2019 study published in International Health concluded that pharmaceuticals that have launched…
Pharma’s top 20 R&D spenders in 2020
The past year has been an unprecedented time for the pharmaceutical industry. On the one hand, the pandemic resulted in substantial delays to clinical trials while also forcing sponsors to rethink clinical trial design to protect participants. But on the other hand, the pandemic underscored the importance of the pharma industry in society. While the…
How PhysIQ is advancing digital therapeutics through its partnership with Janssen
A partnership with J&J’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals is helping PhysIQ advance with its device-agnostic clinical data collection and analysis platform. Over the course of the last year and some change, the impact of digital health and the need for it has increased by an immeasurable amount. Virtual care became the norm after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and, although…
Phase 3 Tremfya results are promising for plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis
Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE:JNJ) pharmaceutical subsidiary Janssen has announced that its Tremfya (guselkumab) selective interleukin (IL)-23 inhibitor therapy led to durable, complete skin clearance in the majority of adults with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis (PsO) for up to five years. The drug also showed substantial efficacy in treating active psoriatic arthritis (PsA) for up to one…