By Kyle Blankenship
The U.S. government has placed a series of multibillion-dollar bets on potential cororavirus vaccines. Actually getting hundreds of millions of doses to patients is another story, though—and now, in a deal reportedly worth up to $300 million, the government has tapped a major distributor to aid that effort.
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By Eric Sagonowsky
Now that the intense hydroxychloroquine debate has lost steam, President Trump is reportedly eyeing another “miracle” therapy without evidence to back it up. The president and allies see oleandrin, an extract of the oleander plant, as a useful dietary supplement—or even an FDA-approved therapy—to treat or prevent COVID-19, Axios reports.
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By Robert King
The Department of Health and Human Services is allocating $1.4 billion in targeted funds to certain children's hospitals hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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By Eric Sagonowsky
With leading COVID-19 vaccines moving into late-stage testing and rollouts possible in late 2020 or early 2021, analysts are starting to make predictions about what the market will look like. In all, Bernstein analyst Ronny Gal predicts the market will be worth $20 billion next year.
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By Paige Minemyer
A New Jersey medical office has filed suit against Cigna, alleging that the insurer failed to pay for diagnostic testing and treatment related to COVID-19, in violation of the CARES Act.
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By Angus Liu
Weeks after the FDA rolled out its standards for approving COVID-19 vaccines, its Chinese counterpart has released its own guidance with some similar criteria, requiring a candidate to be at least 50% more effective than placebo. But unlike the U.S. agency, China's NMPA has specified the length of protection it wants to see.
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By Arlene Weintraub
UCSF researchers engineered a three-part antibody chain to block COVID-19 that's inspired by the tiny nanobodies that llamas and other camelids make naturally to fight off pathogens. They believe the treatment could be delivered as an aerosol and used as a self-administered form of protection against the virus.
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By Ben Adams
Oncology studies were some of the hardest hit in the first few months of the pandemic, but more than a third have now resumed.
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By Eric Sagonowsky, Angus Liu, Kyle Blankenship, Conor Hale, Fraiser Kansteiner
The NIAID is looking ahead to possible challenge trials, and plans to create a strain of the coronavirus for such tests. The FDA approved a spit test popularly used by the NBA. Vaccines will bring in $20 billion next year, one analyst figures. Biological E snagged a vaccine plant from Akorn as it scales up to make J&J's shot. And Philips is deploying ICU kits to hard-hit hospitals.
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By Beth Snyder Bulik
Pandemic woes have workers fearing for their jobs across the U.S., but at least so far, the life sciences industry is largely immune. Pharma and biotech employees are confident in their employment and salary prospects, the search firm EPM Scientific found in a new survey—and the firm itself has seen no decline in demand for recruits across the field.
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