|
As the world saw about 200,000 new cases of COVID-19 this week, researchers began to deliver some of the first clinical data for prospective therapies—with some disappointments. The hyped anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine couldn’t beat placebo in a Chinese study, while repurposed HIV and influenza antivirals also underperformed. But hope remains as Big Pharma companies gear up to donate millions of chloroquine tablets should the drug prove effective, and Gilead cited overwhelming demand for its remdesivir. Elsewhere, the FDA authorized the first hand-held and point-of-care tests for the disease, and unlocked gas therapy and ventilator alternatives. Our top reads of the week are below.
Featured Story | | | Friday, March 20, 2020 As efforts to discover new COVID-19 medicines roll on, President Donald Trump and others this week focused attention on the decades-old malaria drug chloroquine. Bayer got things rolling with an initial donation of the drug, and now Novartis, Mylan and Teva are taking steps to deliver tens of millions of tablets. |
|
|---|
|
Top Stories Of The Week Friday, March 20, 2020 As the biotech industry tries to match the pace of the COVID-19 pandemic with its own research response, we at FierceBiotech are rounding up the industry’s attempts to combat the virus after infection. Tuesday, March 24, 2020 Malaria drug chloroquine, AbbVie’s HIV combo therapy Kaletra and an influenza med called Arbidol are among top candidates that physicians are repurposing for the treatment of COVID-19. Despite backing from officials, though, the three have disappointed separately in two clinical trials in mild Chinese patients. Friday, March 20, 2020 The hunt is well underway for medicines to combat COVID-19, but it will be longer for vaccines than it will be for drug treatments. Here’s a guide to the 35 vaccines in development against COVID-19, including Moderna Therapeutics' phase 1 RNA shot, Pfizer and BioNTech's candidate hard on its heels and a host of preclinical prospects. Saturday, March 21, 2020 The FDA has authorized its first rapid, point-of-care diagnostic for the novel coronavirus—allowing physicians in hospitals, clinics and emergency rooms to test a sample for the disease in about 45 minutes. Thursday, March 26, 2020 With healthcare workers in the U.S. strapped for supplies amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, Merck & Co. is helping out with a donation of around 300,000 masks to the state of New Jersey. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is piecing together county-level guidelines to deal with the COVID-19 response.
2019 will likely go down as a landmark year for biopharma partnering, at least when looking at the sums involved. Monday, March 23, 2020 Since the early days of the current coronavirus outbreak, Gilead Sciences’ experimental antiviral drug remdesivir has been hailed as a leading hope. That halo has apparently overwhelmed the Big Biotech, which has temporarily stopped granting patients emergency access to remdesivir due to an “exponential increase” in requests. Monday, March 23, 2020 Eli Lilly is slashing its clinical trial activities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the novel coronavirus putting healthcare systems under tremendous strain, Lilly has decided to delay most trial starts and pause enrollment in most ongoing studies. Friday, March 20, 2020 Using a regulatory pathway that allows patients with life-threatening conditions to use unapproved therapies, the FDA has granted “emergency expanded access” to Bellerophon Therapeutics’ inhaled nitric oxide delivery system for treating the novel coronavirus. Tuesday, March 24, 2020 China’s use of Roche's Actemra for some COVID-19 patients has put the arthritis drug in the spotlight and set it up for a surge in demand. Roche is trying to stay ahead of that curve by upping production, even as it tests it on COVID-19. Friday, March 20, 2020 A Biogen employee who allegedly concealed her coronavirus symptoms on a flight back to China may face criminal charges. But first, the biotech has decided it wants nothing to do with the rogue staffer. “She is no longer an employee of Biogen,” the biotech said in a statement. Friday, March 20, 2020 While there is no business as usual anymore, pharma marketing is mostly staying the course for now in the shadow of COVID-19. A survey of ad agencies and communications firms that handle pharma clients found both slowdowns and bright spots, but mostly lots of question marks as the situation continues to unfold. Wednesday, March 25, 2020 After earning an FDA nod for breast cancer in December four months ahead of schedule, AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s HER2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate Enhertu is showing some early promise in a phase 1 trial in other cancer types. The antibody-drug conjugate produced a 55.6% objective response rate in HER2-positive non-small cell lung cancer patients. |  |
[Survey] Bioavailability Toolkit Share insight on the drug developer’s perspective on bioavailability enhancement technologies and the reasoning behind the use of certain technologies in preclinical and early-stage clinical development. Take the survey for a chance to win an Amazon gift card. |
Enrollment Showcase | | | Presented by: Global EMBA for Healthcare & the Life Sciences, University of Toronto
Prepare to step up in your career, build the expertise you need to reshape your organization, and explore opportunities worldwide. Download the guide. |
|
|---|
|
Resources Sponsored by: Patheon, by Thermo Fisher Scientific
Poorly soluble molecules hindering your workflow? Sponsored by: eClinical Solutions
Key findings from the 2019 Life Sciences Data & Analytics Survey conducted by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development will be unveiled during this live webinar led by industry expert and study lead, Ken Getz, Director of Sponsored Programs and Associate Professor. Sponsored by: Altran
This whitepaper highlights the challenges of implementing the right digital twin strategy while providing key use cases in the manufacturing domain for which a digital twin is extremely useful and several examples of technology trends that will shape the future. Sponsored by: Catalent
Learn how to drive excellence within the forecasting process and utilize forecasting throughout the clinical study to better plan clinical supply budgets and project timelines. Explore how to identify potential supply-related issues before they can negatively impact your study. Sponsored by: Catalent
Whether a study is simple or highly complex, forecasting and simulation reports serve as data driven communication tools to help minimize risks and keep the study on track. Learn more about forecasting solutions for informed decision making and supporting contingency planning for clinical study. Sponsored by: Catalent
Learn about a real-world example of how clinical supply management expertise was applied to overcome inventory challenges for a complex, global study. Sponsored by: Metabolon
Metabolomics can help you streamline your drug development process by providing the framework to make a stronger, more confident, and more valuable case for a molecule in a shorter timeframe. Sponsored by: Epsilon
Download this e-book to learn 9 ways to enhance the customer experience within healthcare marketing. Sponsored by: Reprints Desk/Research Solutions
3 ways you may be overspending on scientific literature access, and how to fix them. Sponsored by: Baxter
When different drug products are produced in shared facilities, potential for cross-contamination needs to be addressed. Outsourcing to a CMO with experience in multiproduct facilities can be an option. Sponsored by: WCG Metrics Champion Consortium
Ineffective measurement could mean wasting both time and money. This whitepaper showcases a custom-built Metric Maturity Model that helps illustrate and define the process for measuring the right things the right way. Sponsored by: The Kinetix Group
Read about the innovative ways payers are making smart moves in the healthcare game. Sponsored by: Catalent
This whitepaper discusses the benefits of end-to-end solutions and share case studies on how flexible manufacturing strategies can accommodate the changing landscape of pharmaceutical products and help bring a drug to market. | 
