Three companies from the pharmaceutical and med-tech sectors are among this year’s most influential innovators, according to the newest edition of Clarivate plc’s Top 100 Global Innovators 2022. The pharmaceutical companies that were found to be the most innovative in the top 100 list are Johnson & Johnson, of New Brunswick, N.J., and Roche AG, of Basel, Switzerland. Royal Philips NV, of Amsterdam, was found to be the most innovative med-tech company in the top 100.
Johnson & Johnson business Cerenovus Inc. is launching a balloon guide catheter for the U.S. and Canada stroke market. The Irvine, Calif.-based company’s Emboguard device is designed to remove blood clots by controlling blood flow during mechanical thrombectomy procedures. It is the latest addition to the Cerenovus stroke portfolio, which includes the Embotrap III revascularization device, the Prowler EX microcatheter, the Cerenovus large bore catheter and Cerebase guide sheath.
Amid pressure to get a COVID-19 vaccine authorized for infants and toddlers sooner than later, Pfizer Inc. and Biontech SE initiated a rolling submission seeking to amend the U.S. FDA’s emergency use authorization for their mRNA vaccine to include children 6 months through 4 years of age.
Leyden Laboratories BV has raised $140 million in a series B financing round to develop drugs that treat whole families of viruses, including a wide-spectrum flu antibody licensed from Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. unit earlier this month.
Be careful who you’re doing business with. That’s the warning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sent this week to multinational drug and device companies doing business in terrorist hot spots around the world. Reversing a lower court, the D.C. Circuit cleared the way Jan. 4 for 21 drug and device companies to potentially be held accountable for doing business with Jaysh al-Mahdi terrorists, operating through the Iraqi Ministry of Health, who injured or killed hundreds of U.S. troops and civilians in Iraq.
Once the CDC accepts the recommendation of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the COVID-19 vaccine regimen, at least for the Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE vaccine, will include a booster dose for everyone 12 and older. ACIP voted 13-1 at a Jan. 5 emergency meeting to recommend the booster dose for 12- to 17-year-olds at least five months after a primary series of the Pfizer vaccine.
Preliminary data from a phase IIIb study of Johnson & Johnson’s Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19 vaccine showed a homologous booster dose was 85% effective against hospitalization in participants from South Africa.
PERTH, Australia – Australia should be at the front of the line among developed nations when it comes to innovative drugs and devices, but health policies must evolve to respond to changes in technology and global trends, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said. Although Australia’s health policy has served the country well, tensions in the system are becoming seismic shifts that mirror international trends, J&J said in a recent report on Australia’s health system.
With Omicron spreading rapidly, U.S. COVID-19 vaccine producers are facing increasing pressure to up their production and to do more to ensure their vaccines are accessible globally.
The FDA’s regulation of medical technology may be assumed to have a number of unintended consequences, and one of those seems to be the lawsuit between Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Auris Health Inc. Due to a 2018 FDA policy change regarding 510(k) devices, a robotic surgery system acquired by a J&J subsidiary from Auris was forced into the lengthier de novo premarket channel. This change ultimately helped derail the development effort for the Auris Iplatform surgical system and thus played a role in the $2.35 billion lawsuit alleging that J&J had engaged in fraud in its deal with Auris over the acquisition.
