The stimulus bill passed by the U.S. Senate March 26 on a vote of 96-0 does more than throw $2.2 trillion into the war against COVID-19. “This is not … a stimulus package. It is emergency relief,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor before the vote.
HONG KONG – Singapore-based Proteona Pte. Ltd. has formed a couple of significant partnerships recently, including a Germany-Singapore partnership to develop a drug screening and discovery platform using single cell multi-omics analysis for patient-derived micro-tumors, and an international alliance to develop antibodies against coronaviruses.
DUBLIN – The Genentech arm of Roche Holding AG plans to move its interleukin-6 inhibitor, Actemra, into a global phase III trial in patients with severe pneumonia associated with COVID-19 infection.
BEIJING – The COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily impacted partnerships and investment opportunities, but it has also prompted other forms of collaboration within the biotech community.
BEIJING – China was the first country to face serious disruptions in clinical trials caused by COVID-19, and policy advocates in the country moved quickly to identify lessons for future outbreaks.
Business as usual only three months ago has transformed into health care industry overdrive as biopharma and med-tech companies scramble to test and scale-up treatments, vaccines and diagnostics to address COVID-19.
It took less than a week from the publication of Science 37’s whitepaper on March 12 encouraging virtual clinical trials to the FDA’s decision to endorse the idea, tailored to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hoth Therapeutics Inc., of New York, and Voltron Therapeutics Inc. have formed a joint venture, Halovax, to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 that can be advanced to clinical testing.
Humanigen Inc., the Burlingame, Calif.-based developer of an anti-human-GM-CSF monoclonal antibody for preventing and treating cytokine storms, is urgently working to spin up a phase III trial of the candidate, lenzilumab, for COVID-19 patients whose immune systems have gone into overdrive.
