WELCOME TO FIERCE LIFE SCIENCES WEEKLY DIGEST Another week, another small step forward: AstraZeneca and Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate delivered good news, showing it was generally safe and could trigger immune responses. Its protection against the novel coronavirus must still be confirmed—but that hasn’t stopped the U.K. from ordering 100 million doses in advance. Meanwhile, J&J is talking with Japan to supply its candidate, as it begins human testing next week. Elsewhere, researchers found that the decades-old blood thinner heparin could serve as a potential “decoy,” trapping the virus and stopping it from entering cells. Those stories, plus our top reads of the week, follow below. | |
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Featured Story | By Arlene Weintraub SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, binds tightly to heparin, which is widely used to treat and prevent blood clots, scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute discovered. An inhaled form of the drug could be used as a decoy to prevent the virus from invading healthy cells, they proposed. read more |
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Top Stories Of The Week By Ben Adams As Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech have this month been busy releasing early data out of their COVID-19 vaccine programs, AstraZeneca is now joining the July data drop. read more By Kyle Blankenship Western intelligence officials pegged Russian hackers with an attempt to rip off leading research for a COVID-19 vaccine. Russia has denied involvement in any attacks and with a new licensing deal for AstraZeneca's COVID-19 shot, the country says it doesn't need the secrets anyway. read more By Ben Adams A U.K. biotech has seen its shares skyrocket on new data from its experimental treatment in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, but it’s too early for game-changer cliches. read more By Kyle Blankenship With COVID-19 vaccine players speeding their way through early testing, governments around the world are looking to put deals in place to secure supply of a possible winner for their own citizens. Drugmakers like AstraZeneca may already be ahead of the pack, but other companies are now taking a seat at the negotiating table. read more By Conor Hale The FDA authorized its first COVID-19 diagnostic test for use with pools of samples in a move to let laboratories conserve resources by evaluating groups of people at once. read more By Kyle Blankenship AstraZeneca has already taken impressive Farxiga heart failure outcomes results and parlayed them into a watershed approval. Looking at Farxiga's future in a competitive heart failure market, the company is betting on innovation—and that commitment has caught the FDA's eye. read more By Eric Sagonowsky AbbVie grew Humira into the world’s bestselling medicine in part through price hikes and an aggressive patenting strategy to defend against competition. The company is now deploying similar tactics to bolster Imbruvica, a cancer drug with numerous uses and big sales, experts concluded in a new report. read more By Nick Paul Taylor Pfizer and BioNTech have shared (PDF) phase 1/2 data suggesting their COVID-19 vaccine triggers stronger CD8 T-cell responses than Moderna’s rival candidate. Four-fifths of subjects who received BNT162b1 had vaccine-induced CD8 T-cell responses and researchers classed most of the responses as strong. read more By Beth Snyder Bulik Bristol Myers Squibb has enlisted actor Sterling K. Brown for a new program that aims to address the needs of an ever-increasing number of cancer survivors. With "Survivorship Today," Brown interviews survivors to zero in on physical and mental well-being after treatments wrap up. read more Resources Sponsored by: Lonza Pharma & Biotech A novel spray-dried dispersion platform has been developed to faciliate high drug load applications Sponsored by: Florence Complimentary Download: How to connect to study sites remotely via the Electronic Investigator Site File (eISF) to streamline clinical operations. Insights from the largest eISF network in the world. With today’s rapidly evolving environment, we have created this five-part content series to highlight pressing issues and topics that are more pertinent today than ever before. Sponsored by: Cambrex The industry trend of outsourcing to CDMOs continues. With more services, capabilities, facilities, and employees than ever before, our experts have contributed more articles to our biggest eBook yet. Sponsored by: EVERSANA How predictive analytics and machine learning have the potential to transform healthcare by predicting “Patient Switching Behaviors.” Sponsored by: Recro Gainesville Wurster processing is a versatile technique for developing and manufacturing multiparticulates for modified release dosage forms. Read this whitepaper to determine whether Wurster processing is the right option for your project. Sponsored by: PRA Health Sciences Collaboration across the industry will be key to meeting the demands of the RACE Act and ensuring pediatric patients receive the care and treatments they need. Sponsored by: Systech Get an inside look… Merck shares its next-generation approach to supply chain protection with new digital platforms, including Blockchain. Sponsored by: Automation Anywhere Built on advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), data mining, and information integration into various systems at 100% accuracy, the new era of intelligent automation is integral to life sciences for devising new treatments faster and at a lower expense. Sponsored by: Catalent Regardless of the assigned FDA expedited approval designation and approach, the key action items should be: the assurance of a detail-oriented plan and the adaption of a “forward-thinking” approach that will assist in any future challenges and opportunities for growth of each project. Sponsored by: Catalent Get expert insights on strategies to implement flexible manufacturing and different technologies that are easily scalable and reproducible. 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. 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: 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 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. | 
