In the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the world was desperate for a lifeline, the global pharma sector’s R&D prowess was thrust into the limelight. Now, as the pandemic begins to loosen its grip, the sector continues to make aggressive investments in research and development (R&D). At the tip of the spear of this…
The next wave: 10 promising investigational antihypertensive drugs to watch
Cardiovascular diseases remain a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. This review highlights ten promising antihypertensive drug candidates with the potential to address pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), resistant hypertension and uncontrolled hypertension. Aprocitentan, developed by Janssen NYSE:JNJ) and Idorsia (SIX:IDIA), is an experimental oral drug designed to treat resistant hypertension. As a dual endothelin…
Merck forges Alzheimer’s pact with Cerevance
Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK) could pay more than $1 billion to the Boston-based biotech startup Cerevance to develop potential drugs for Alzheimer’s disease. The collaboration will center around Cerevance’s Nuclear Enriched Transcript Sort sequencing (NETSseq) technology platform. The platform’s origins trace back to research at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Under the terms of the…
GSK wins FDA approval for Priorix MMR vaccine
GSK plc (LSE/NYSE:GSK) has announced that the FDA has approved the Priorix measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine for individuals at least 12 months old. Before the FDA approval, Merck & Co.’s M-M-R II was the only MMR vaccine currently FDA approved in the U.S. Merck also has an FDA-approved measles, mumps, rubella and varicella…
15 of the best pharma companies to work for
The pharmaceutical industry continues to see strong growth and is poised to have a compound annual growth rate of 13.7% from 2020 to 2027, according to projections from Grand View Research. The best pharma companies to work for continue to offer a number of advantages to skilled workers. Pharma positions remain in high demand, and…
Pharma’s top 20 R&D spenders in 2021
If 2020 underscored the importance of the pharma industry’s social importance, 2021 demonstrated the ability of R&D spenders to yield profitable commercialized products. But while strong demand for COVID-19 therapies in 2021 provided unprecedented revenue levels for a handful of Big Pharma companies, it didn’t result in substantial changes in R&D spending. (Look out for more insights…
BMJ op-ed calls molnupiravir authorization ‘premature’
A recent editorial in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) criticized the decisions of British and U.S. health regulators to authorize the use of the antiviral molnupiravir, the COVID-19 antiviral. The developers of the drug, Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK) and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, had announced that molnupiravir lowered the risk of hospital admissions or death by roughly 50% in…
Japanese government agrees to buy 1.6 million molnupiravir courses
Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK) and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics will sell approximately 1.6 million courses of the COVID-19 antiviral molnupiravir (MK-4482, EIDD-2801) to the Japanese government. In related news, Thailand announced that it intends to purchase 50,000 courses of the drug while Taiwan plans on obtaining 10,000 courses. The U.S. plans on purchasing roughly 3.1…