The latest developments from pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, both innovator and generic-drug companies, and leading regulatory news.
BioNTech, a Mainz, Germany-based immunotherapy company, is increasing production at its site in Marburg, Germany as part of a plan by Pfizer/BioNTech to increase global production of their COVID-19 vaccine from 1.3 billion doses to 2 billion...
The latest on manufacturing, potential treatments/vaccines, and testing for COVID-19 with news from J&J, Moderna, Thermo Fisher, Novavax, CureVac, Sinovac, and Celltrion.
Manufacturing and supply of COVID-19 vaccines and drugs
Moderna in...
AstraZeneca has added two additional manufacturing partners for its COVID-19 vaccine, respectively in Japan and Europe, with Daiichi Sankyo and IDT Biologika, a Dessau-Rosslau, Germany-based CDMO. Also, the South African government suspended the...
Sandoz, the generics and biosimilars arm of Novartis, has agreed to acquire GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) cephalosporin antibiotics business in a $500-million deal.
The agreement includes the global rights to three cephalosporin antibiotics brands,...
Merck & Co. has announced that Kenneth C. Frazier, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), will retire as CEO, effective June 30, 2021. Robert M. Davis, Merck’s current Executive Vice President, Global Services, and Chief Financial Officer,...
Eli Lilly and Company has agreed to acquire the exclusive rights for AK1780, a chronic pain drug candidate from Asahi Kasei Pharma, a Tokyo-based pharmaceutical and diagnostic company, in a $410-million deal.
AK1780 is an orally bioavailable P2X7...
As part of ongoing divestment program of non-core assets following its $62-billion acquisition of Shire in 2019, Takeda Pharmaceutical has completed two separate deals to divest non-core assets totaling a combined $1.25 billion.
Deal with Hypera...
The latest on manufacturing, potential treatments, and testing for COVID-19 with news from J&J, Moderna, Novavax, GSK, CSL, Lilly, Roche, and others.
Manufacturing and supply of COVID-19 vaccines and drugs
Moderna Increases Supply of COVID-19...
Pfizer and BioNTech plan to increase manufacturing of their COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 from 1.3 billion doses to 2 billion doses on a global basis and formed an initial manufacturing pact with Novartis.
To enable the increase in manufacturing, the...
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and CureVac, a Tubingen, Germany-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, have entered into a EUR 150-million ($180-million) pact to jointly develop...
AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine has been granted conditional marketing authorization (CMA) in the European Union (EU) for active immunization to prevent COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The company also updated its...
The US government has agreed to purchase an additional 100 million doses each of both the COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna for a total of an additional 200 million doses.
President Joe Biden directed the US government’s COVID-19...
The European Commission (EC) has provided a statement regarding the delayed delivery of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to the European Union.
In a January 25, 2021 statement made by the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella...
Eli Lilly and Company has completed its acquisition of Prevail Therapeutics, a New York-based company developing gene therapies, in a $1.04-billion deal ($880 million upfront plus one non-tradable contingent value right worth up to $160 million)....
Janet Woodcock, M.D., formerly head of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was named Acting FDA Commissioner, effective January 20, 2021. She took over from Dr. Stephen Hahn, who served as the...
