WELCOME TO FIERCE LIFE SCIENCES WEEKLY DIGEST With the rise of omicron reminding the world that we are far from out of the woods yet, vaccine makers are investigating whether they have to tweak their shots. Moderna, Pfizer, BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca have all said they’re testing new versions that specifically target the new strain and its mutated spike protein, with some supplies potentially ready by early next year if they’re needed. That story, plus our other top reads of the week, follow below. | |
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Featured Story | By Kevin Dunleavy Producers of the world's top COVID-19 vaccines say they are moving quickly to test their shots against the new omicron variant. They also are developing shots tailored to the new strain. Moderna said it has a three-pronged strategy to address the threat. read more |
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Top Stories Of The Week By Ben Adams GlaxoSmithKline is making its first major foray into treating the fatty liver condition known as NASH as it pens a $1 billion asset pact with Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals. read more By Kevin Dunleavy Swedish-based investment group EQT and the Struengmann family of Germany are considering a joint move to purchase Novartis' generics unit Sandoz for $21.6 billion, according to German newspaper Handelsblatt. The price would make it the largest pharma deal of the year. read more By Nick Paul Taylor The efficacy of Merck’s COVID-19 antiviral has fallen sharply. While most Americans were sleeping off Thanksgiving, Merck revealed the relative risk reduction fell from 50% to 30% in the final analysis of its phase 3 data, sending its stock sliding down. read more By Angus Liu The efficacy data for Pfizer’s oral COVID-19 drug now look so appealing that the Big Pharma company is boosting manufacturing capacity even before an expected emergency use authorization. read more By Fraiser Kansteiner Hungry for details on Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine? Just file a FOIA request and wait until the U.S. tricentennial in 2076. That's the schedule the FDA proposed in documents filed in a U.S. District Court this week. read more By Andrea Park Owlet is no longer selling its Smart Sock vital sign monitors for babies and toddlers after the FDA informed the company that the devices had been improperly brought to market. read more By Andrea Park Nearly three months into her federal trial over a dozen counts of fraud, Elizabeth Holmes took the stand last week, undergoing questioning by her defense team that has so far stretched across three days. read more By Angus Liu On the centennial of the discovery of insulin, China decided a round of price cuts on the diabetes therapy is due. As a result, foreign companies Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and Eli Lilly are taking a beating in the key market. read more By Angus Liu Kymera Therapeutics showed its STAT3 degrader significantly inhibited tumor growth in mice bearing colorectal cancer and B-cell lymphoma. The drug also appeared to sensitize tumors to anti-PD-1 cancer immunotherapy. read more By Annalee Armstrong Fierce Biotech profiles three women breaking barriers in Alzheimer's disease R&D at leading pharmaceutical companies. Up first is Biogen's CMO Maha Radhakrishnan, M.D. read more By Natalie Missakian Pharma companies vying for a piece of the lucrative migraine market have gone all-in on marketing, turning to Olympic athletes and Hollywood stars to pitch recently approved brands in TV commercials and on social media. But is the message sinking in with patients? Apparently not yet, a new survey from Phreesia Life Sciences suggests. read more Resources Sponsored by: GLG Download now to learn how GLG helped a biotech company plan for the demand of a new drug/device combination by commissioning a forecasting study. Sponsored by: BBK Worldwide Create more inclusive clinical trials, enroll them faster, and keep participants engaged longer with the latest Study Voices survey results and insights. Sponsored by: WIRB - Copernicus Group Sites receiving augmentation support enroll more than 30,000 patients in just over three months. See how additional site resources can make a difference. Sponsored by: GLG A major Korean biopharmaceutical company wanted to gather unbiased opinions on a new cancer treatment product. Fill out our form to learn more. Sponsored by: TransPerfect Life Sciences If you’re thinking about leveraging the benefits of increased quality, reduced costs, and shortened turnaround times that machine translation (MT) has to offer, check out this quick guide for the top 10 considerations when implementing MT. Sponsored by: Medable, Inc. Find out how to improve clinical protocol adherence, and thus patient outcomes, by 15%+ with Medable’s latest White Paper. Sponsored by: IQVIA Learn how to elevate your omnichannel marketing strategy with Next Best - a combination of data and analytics, deployed to facilitate decision making. Sponsored by: Catalent Biologics Ypsomed and Catalent Biologics experts discuss strategies for integrated PFS manufacturing and auto-injector assembly to accelerate timelines and more in this webinar. Sponsored by: Catalent Biologics Learn how formulation development for a PFS affects manufacturing to drive the industry toward optimizing delivery of injectable products and, ultimately, improving patient care. Sponsored by: Informa Pharma Intelligence and Oracle Health Sciences New market research provides valuable insight into the impact of adaptations made in clinical trials during the pandemic. Sponsored by: Thermo Fisher Scientific Learn how to develop a high-performing supply chain for cGMP chemicals used throughout your biologics workflow. Download the free whitepaper from Thermo Fisher Scientific Sponsored by: Box Read Get to Know Cloud Content Management for Life Sciences and learn how to eliminate silos across all workflows, from R&D to commercialization. Sponsored By: Remarque Systems Remarque Systems consolidates data, then layers on visualization and automated metrics to generate consistent, actionable data insights in real-time. Click here for more info. | 
