With several more emergency use authorizations (EUAs) across the globe, COVID-19 efforts to flatten the emerging variants with cocktail therapies and tweaked vaccines are frantically underway. BioWorld has tracked 884 therapeutics and vaccines that have entered development for the deadly SARS-CoV-2 virus since it first emerged more than a year ago, and the U.S. government has now provided EUAs to three vaccines and six therapies. As of March 1, the World Health Organization reports more than 113.8 million cases and 2.53 million deaths from the pandemic, with U.S. figures standing at 28.2 million and 508,584, respectively. After three months of the first phase of global vaccinations, the number of cases and deaths appear to be heading downward, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

Neurocrine phase II schizophrenia signals mixed

San Diego-based Neurocrine Biosciences Inc.’s good-and-bad top-line phase II data with d-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) inhibitor luvadaxistat, also known NBI-1065844 and TAK-831, in schizophrenia likely came as little surprise to many, given earlier experience in the general pathway. Still, findings from the study called Interact in adults with negative symptoms of schizophrenia provided enough upside that Neurocrine, with partner Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, will investigate the compound’s prospects further. Shares (NASDAQ:NBIX) were trading midday at $101.67, down $7.76.

Pharmas and VCs dish out advice to biotechs

At Biocom California's Global Life Sciences Partnering Conference, executives at pharmaceutical companies and venture capital firms advised biotech companies on everything from funding to manufacturing to the current valuations in this market.

GAO questions Medicare ‘pass-through’ incentive

The separate “pass-through” payment Medicare provides for new, high-cost Part B drugs that are part of certain hospital procedures in the U.S. may be an incentive for hospitals to use those drugs rather than less expensive alternatives, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The GAO noted that hospital usage of some drugs dropped when their pass-through payment expired. However, other factors could come into play, the report acknowledged.

India’s pharma industry reevaluating reliance on China APIs

NEW DELHI – Significant disruptions to supplies of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from China caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have led India to fundamentally rethink its supply chains and the structure of its pharmaceutical industry, according to industry executives and consultants. Spurred by those disruptions, India has now taken steps to limit its dependence on China for APIs.

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