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Today's Rundown

Featured Story

Gilead's long-awaited remdesivir price is $3,120, in line with watchdog estimates

Industry watchers and pharma critics have spent the past two months pitching their calculations on how Gilead Sciences would—and should—price remdesivir. Now, the guessing is over. And the finalized price means Gilead could still reap $2.3 billion in 2020 revenue from remdesivir, one analyst figures.

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Top Stories

Amid COVID-19 job losses, nearly 500K sign up for coverage on HealthCare.gov

As COVID-19 continues to impact the job market, new data from the Trump administration show that nearly 500,000 people signed up for coverage using HealthCare.gov through May.

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AstraZeneca reaches supply deal with Brazilian government to produce millions of doses of COVID-19 shot

As COVID-19 continues to rampage across the globe, Brazil stands alongside the U.S. as the countries hardest hit with new infections and deaths. But AstraZeneca and its vaccine hopeful could be coming to save the day now that the drugmaker and Brazilian government have reached a new supply pact. 

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COVID-19 close-up: Takeda's Morabito on the science behind plasma-based treatments

Hyperimmune globulins work by giving patients a mix of antibodies produced by different kinds of immune cells, so they have multiple different antibodies against multiple different antigens on the virus. Morabito called it a “shotgun approach” that could help patients fight off COVID-19 while researchers are still learning about the disease.

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Biopharma tackles COVID-19, HIV and other viruses with gene and cell therapies

Top players in gene and cell therapy have mobilized behind the mission of turning the new technologies against COVID-19. Their efforts to perfect these therapies could help combat this pandemic, prevent future ones and eliminate viruses that have resisted more traditional treatments.

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Google and Apple prioritized privacy with COVID-19 technology, Feinberg said. But will anybody use it?

Google Health executive David Feinberg gave assurances Thursday that Google and Apple took a "privacy-first" approach to develop COVID-19 exposure notification technology. Feinberg said contact tracing apps could play a valuable role in preventing a renewed spread of the virus. The question is, will anyone else them?

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Healthcare roundup: HHS secures 500K courses of remdesivir for distribution to hospitals

Follow along with the latest COVID-19 news straight from the Fierce Healthcare team.

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Biopharma roundup: Takeda touts COVID-19 plasma therapy; Beckman Coulter gears up for 30M monthly antibody tests

Gilead Sciences unveiled the long-awaited price for its antiviral COVID treatment remdesivir Monday. Beckman Coulter nabbed FDA approval to ship 30 million antibody tests per month. And a Takeda R&D chief talked up the company's recent collaboration to develop a hyperimmune therapy.

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After CureVac nabs government backing, BioNTech sees $250M private investment

As two of Germany’s brightest COVID-19 pandemic vaccine biotechs continue to speed on with their clinical work, both have seen big cash injections to help them—but from very different sources.

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With FDA nod, Beckman Coulter plans to ship 30M antibody tests per month

Beckman Coulter received an FDA emergency authorization for its mass-produced coronavirus antibody test, with plans to deliver more than 30 million tests per month worldwide.

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PPD expands lab test work to boost pandemic vaccine, drug trial research

Contract research organization PPD has boosted its COVID-19 research by adding five new molecular, serology and functional assays.

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