June 19, 2020 - Fierce Pharma
After a COVID-19 vaccine deal between four European countries and AstraZeneca, another pharma giant is reportedly in advanced talks to supply its candidate in Europe should it prove safe and effective.
Johnson & Johnson is negotiating with the European Commission to supply its coronavirus vaccine candidate if it succeeds in testing, Reuters
reports
. The drugmaker plans to start a phase 1/2a test next month under an accelerated
timeline
unveiled last week.
Beyond that, the company is involved in Operation Warp Speed in the U.S., where officials plan to start late-stage testing for the candidate in September, The Wall Street Journal has
reported
.
June 19, 2020 - Reuters
The move illustrates how the pandemic is changing the way hospitals work, at least regarding COVID-19 patients.
Traditionally, doctors wait for detailed data to be published in a peer-reviewed journal - or for guidelines from medical societies - before embracing a new treatment, so they can better gauge the risks against the drug’s benefits. The urgency of the coronavirus pandemic and lack of other treatments have altered those calculations.
Dexamethasone is the first drug shown to lower the risk of death in severely ill COVID-19 patients in what researchers running the trial hailed as a “major breakthrough.”
June 16, 2020 - Fierce Biotech
Takeda is sending off a troop of psychiatry programs, including three that are already in the clinic, to the next stage of their lives at Neurocrine Biosciences. In return, the Japanese pharma will pick up $120 million in upfront cash, with the potential to rake in nearly $1.9 billion in milestone payments—as well as the chance to share in the profits.
Neurocrine is picking up an
exclusive license
to seven assets from Takeda’s early- to midstage psychiatry pipeline, including clinical-stage programs in schizophrenia, treatment-resistant depression and anhedonia, or the inability to feel pleasure.
June 15, 2020 - BioPharma Dive
The German national government will buy 300 million Euros worth of shares in drug and vaccine maker CureVac in a bid to speed development of its medicines. The company is advancing a vaccine for the novel coronavirus that uses technology similar to that of Moderna and another German drugmaker, BioNTech.
CureVac said the investment will not give the German government exclusive rights to the vaccine. “Of course, we will supply the Federal Republic of Germany with our vaccine when it is fully developed. In general, however, our goal is to help as many people worldwide as possible,” the company stated in a question-and-answer on the transaction.
The company had been subject of media reports, which it denied, that President Donald Trump had sought to secure exclusive access to its vaccine for the U.S. Today’s announcement demonstrates how governments worldwide are becoming deeply involved in financing coronavirus vaccines and treatments, and in some cases those investments are seen as a bid to claim first rights.