| Big Pharmas continue to inch potential COVID-19 treatments through clinical testing—with many hopes pinned to their readouts. Gilead revved up remdesivir production and quadrupled its study enrollment, while AstraZeneca set a date for its antibody trial. Meanwhile, Novartis and Incyte plan to put Jakafi up against the coronavirus’ deadly cytokine storms. And as U.S. cases top 450,000, nearly a third of the planet’s 1.5 million, the FDA greenlit its first blood test for COVID-19 antibodies—but Oxford researchers say the serological tests they’ve evaluated so far don’t quite measure up. Those stories and more follow below. | |
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Featured Story | | | Monday, April 6, 2020 Wealthy individuals typically don't set out to waste billions of dollars, but amid the COVID-19 pandemic, that’s exactly what Bill Gates is willing to do. The Gates Foundation will help fund factories for seven promising vaccines, even though most of them won't pan out. |
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Top Stories Of The Week Tuesday, April 7, 2020 President Donald Trump has asked “leading” U.S. pharmaceutical companies working on experimental COVID-19 treatments to “contact London” and offer help to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is in intensive care after testing positive for the novel coronavirus last month. Friday, April 3, 2020 The FDA granted its first emergency authorization for a rapid antibody blood test for COVID-19, developed by Cellex, allowing people to gauge a person’s immune response to the novel coronavirus. At first glance, venture investment for biotech slumped in 2019. By the raw numbers, 2019 lost on every metric compared to 2018. Total investment dollars dropped by $4 billion, from $17.9 billion in 2018 to $13.9 billion in 2019, and the average round size decreased too, from $40.2 million to $36.7 million. But that’s not the full story. Monday, April 6, 2020 Gilead Sciences' remdesivir has courted high hopes as a potential treatment for COVID-19—so high, in fact, that the company previously had to shut down emergency access to the drug. Now, Gilead's manufacturing of remdesivir is operating at light speed, and free doses of the drug are getting ready to ship. Wednesday, April 8, 2020 AstraZeneca has outlined its multipronged approach to the development of antibodies against the pandemic SARS-CoV-2 virus. The Big Pharma is applying its own discovery capabilities to the task and helping to evaluate candidates identified by academic partners in China and the U.S. Friday, April 3, 2020 Drugmakers across the board are rolling already approved drugs into late-stage clinical trials in an effort to find a speedy therapy for COVID-19. Now, two more are joining the party, with Swiss drugmaker Novartis and partner Incyte set to test their blockbuster JAK inhibitor. Wednesday, April 8, 2020 “None of the tests we have validated would meet the criteria for a good test," said the University of Oxford's Sir John Bell, citing many false positive and false negative results, and describing an accurate test as potentially weeks away. Friday, April 3, 2020 Sanofi, the maker of a branded hydroxychloroquine drug called Plaquenil, is producing as much drug as it can, CEO Paul Hudson told Reuters. But there are limits amid a pandemic. Some employees are having to step aside if they show symptoms, he said. Monday, April 6, 2020 A Massachusetts General Hospital spinoff has developed a self-assembling vaccine for COVID-19 that will enter animal studies this month. It's one of several coronavirus vaccine candidates that's emerging from partnerships between technology developers and biology researchers aiming to speed up solutions to the pandemic. Friday, April 3, 2020 Amid the COVID-19 pandemic new drug rollouts, especially for chronic diseases, face an uphill fight, analysts figure. Bristol Myers has already postponed a big new rollout, and Novartis, Gilead Sciences and Roche could see their closely watched prospects held up by regulatory delays. Resources Sponsored by: Clinical Ink This white paper includes a Phase III case study and discusses BYOD advantages and misconceptions, regulatory, copyright, and equivalency considerations. Sponsored by: Research Solutions Turn your drug failures into competitive advantage. Sponsored by: ICON How will US payers evaluate and manage digital therapeutics? Get insights and recommendations on successful market access considerations. Sponsored by: Epsilon Download this e-book to learn 9 ways to enhance the customer experience within healthcare marketing. 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