May 22, 2020 - Fierce Pharma
Outside of vaccines, GlaxoSmithKline isn’t a major producer of biologics compared with some of its Big Pharma peers. But it has just signed a big deal to scale up manufacturing in the field.
The British pharma
tapped
South Korean CDMO Samsung Biologics in a deal worth more than $231 million to help it make biologic products over the next eight years. The manufacturing capacity Samsung offers will be flexible depending on GSK’s future needs, the company said Friday.
The deal will initially cover lupus drug Benlysta, with the first commercial supply expected in 2022. The pair intends to expand the pact to other GSK specialty-care products in the future.
May 21, 2020 - Fierce Pharma
Only days after Moderna reported positive early results for its potential COVID-19 vaccine, AstraZeneca has stolen the spotlight back. On Thursday, the U.K. drug giant
scored
a $1.2 billion contribution from the United States for development, production and delivery of its potential shot starting this fall.
The vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute, contains the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. It isn’t replicating, so it can’t cause an ongoing infection in recipients, AZ
says
. The company hopes the vaccine can deliver a strong immune response from one dose by triggering the body to produce the spike protein and attack the novel coronavirus upon infection.
May 19, 2020 - BioPharma Dive
Phlow, a Richmond, Virginia-based corporation that describes itself as a public benefit drug manufacturer,
announced Tuesday
the federal government will pay it hundreds of millions of dollars to make essential medicines that are at risk of shortage, including medicines used to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
The money comes from BARDA, or the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contract starts with a four-year award of $354 million, which can be extended to a 10-year award worth $812 million total.
May 19, 2020 - Fierce Biotech
When Vividion Therapeutics spun out of The Scripps Research Institute, it aimed to “dramatically expand” the roster of druggable proteins. Now, three years down the line, its efforts have yielded a “huge oilfield with tremendous potential,” its CEO says, so it’s tapping its second Big Pharma partner to exploit that potential.
Roche is handing over $135 million upfront in an option and licensing
agreement
under which Vividion will discover and conduct preclinical work on programs targeting oncology and immunology targets as well as E3 ligases, which are enzymes that play a role in protein degradation. Roche has the exclusive right to license compounds that come out of the deal at different stages of development, and Vividion can opt into sharing development costs and profits on certain programs.
May 18, 2020 - Fierce Biotech
With eyes on a phase 3 study this summer, Moderna posted promising early data for its COVID-19 vaccine. The jab prompted an immune response similar to those seen in patients who have recovered from the disease.
The study, being run by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), is testing three dose levels of the vaccine, mRNA-1273, given in two injections a month apart. Eight patients who received the two lowest dose levels—25 micrograms and 100 micrograms—
developed neutralizing antibodies
against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, two weeks after receiving their second dose.
