Johnson & Johnson takes control at troubled Emergent vaccine plant after major production snafu Digital health's red-hot quarter: $6.7B raised in 147 deals England pitches free, nationwide COVID-19 testing twice per week AstraZeneca is forced to scout for new COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing partner, dealing the launch another setback Moderna shells out for CEO security as its COVID-19 vaccine grabs the spotlight COVID-19 accelerates trend of hospitals acquiring ambulatory surgery centers Takeda, CSL pandemic plasma therapy fails phase 3, as COVID Alliance axed Ortho signs $53.7M government contract to triple its COVID-19 test production COVID-19 tracker: India's Panacea to produce Sputnik V shot; U.K. plans nationwide testing program CEO Dan O'Day, tasked with boosting Gilead's oncology presence, scores $19M for a year focused on COVID OptumCare scaled up its home colon cancer screenings due to COVID-19. Here's how Pfizer's Vizimpro is among 3 FDA-approved drugs that combat COVID-19 in lung cells: report Featured Story | By Eric Sagonowsky Johnson & Johnson is in. Emergent BioSolutions is out—at least when it comes to managing its own plant in Baltimore. After a manufacturing mix-up forced J&J to discard up to 15 million doses of its vaccine made there—and after news emerged of Emergent's history of violations there—the U.S. government stepped in, handing control of the plant to the pharma giant. read more |
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Top Stories By Heather Landi In the first quarter of 2021, investors doubled down on digital health, pouring $6.7 billion into the sector, making it the most-funded quarter to date, according to investment firm Rock Health. Here are four big trends in digital health funding during the quarter. read more By Conor Hale As it works to get more shots into arms across the country, the U.K. government announced that it would make routine, rapid COVID-19 testing available for free to everyone in England. The plan includes two tests per week starting April 9, with results expected at home within 30 minutes, regardless of whether a person is showing symptoms. read more By Kevin Dunleavy The U.S. will help AstraZeneca find a new manufacturer for its COVID-19 vaccine after ordering Johnson & Johnson's takeover of an error-prone Emergent plant in Baltimore. read more By Eric Sagonowsky Moderna stepped onto the world stage last year when it pivoted its mRNA research to target COVID-19, scaled up manufacturing, staffed up in sales and marketing and then launched a highly effective shot. And under that spotlight, CEO Stéphane Bancel and his team needed backup, Moderna decided. read more By Robert King The pandemic accelerated a trend of hospitals acquiring ambulatory surgery centers as the facilities become more popular among payers and patients. read more By Nick Paul Taylor A phase 3 clinical trial of concentrated levels of convalescent COVID-19 antibodies has missed its endpoints. The failure marks the end of a CSL Behring-Takeda alliance that set out one year ago to develop a plasma-derived treatment for COVID-19. read more By Andrea Park Vaccination rates may be steadily climbing across the country, but companies hope COVID-19 testing won't slow down any time soon. In fact, manufacturers are now ramping up production of antigen and antibody tests, with Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, for one, expecting to triple its output within the next year. read more By Kevin Dunleavy,Fraiser Kansteiner,Eric Sagonowsky Panacea Biotech is the latest Indian CDMO to sign up to produce the Sputnik V vaccine. The U.K. will kick off free, twice-a-week COVID testing. A Takeda-CSL Behring COVID treatment has failed a phase 3 test. The Biden administration has turned an error-prone Emergent plant over to J&J to oversee COVID-19 vaccine production. And in a related story, AstraZeneca has lost its capacity at the Emergent plant. read more By Eric Sagonowsky Gilead Sciences didn't bring CEO Dan O’Day on board to usher a COVID-19 antiviral to an FDA approval, but his company’s success in that arena certainly lifted Gilead's fortunes last year. Still, the CEO’s pay package fell quite dramatically year-over-year, thanks to one-time payments he collected in 2019 as incentive to join the drugmaker. read more By Paige Minemyer UnitedHealth Group's OptumCare unit pivoted to care in the home as much as possible under the pandemic. read more By Arlene Weintraub A Penn team found that Pfizer’s lung cancer treatment Vizimpro (dacomitinib), the antibiotic salinomycin and anti-rejection drug cyclosporine inhibited SARS-CoV-2 in respiratory cells. The study also shed light on the varied mechanisms the virus uses to invade different types of cells. read more |
