DUBLIN – A re-evaluation of psychedelic drugs as potential therapies for major depressive disorder, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and other neuropsychiatric conditions has been underway for some time, but this broad effort gained further momentum during 2020, as commercial firms started to raise money at the level needed to enable the field to start moving from small-scale academic studies to the kind of industry-scale trials that will be needed to convince regulators, patients and physicians that these molecules could become viable treatment options.
LONDON – The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Astrazeneca plc and Oxford University has been approved by the U.K regulator, with the first doses being shipped on Dec. 30 and a mass vaccination program due to begin on Jan. 4. AZD-1222, now named COVID-19 Vaccine Astrazeneca, is authorized for emergency use and will require two doses for durable effect.
China has added 119 new drugs to its national reimbursement drug list (NRDL) with an average price cut of 50.64%, a move that biopharmaceutical insiders said will further encourage drug innovation at home, despite lower drug prices. More innovative drugs, notably all homegrown PD-1 inhibitors, are included in the latest NRDL that will take effect from March 1, 2021 to the end of 2023.
Startup Faze Medicines Inc. launched in early December with a series A funding of $81 million, and an A list of investors, led by Third Rock Ventures – an indicator of the attention condensates are attracting from the biopharma industry. Faze CSO Rachel Meyers, though, named another indicator for condensates’ blue-ribbon status: rumors have it that the 7th edition of Molecular Biology of the Cell – a workhorse textbook for 30 years’ worth of students in the field – will be the first to include information on condensates.
In an exclusive interview with BioWorld on the challenges facing a deeply divided Congress and some of the highlights of his years in the U.S. House, retiring Congressman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said that once the COVID- 19 pandemic is over, federal policymakers should hold a summit with officials from states and major cities to look at a new preparedness partnership that would ensure the availability of strategic medical supplies.
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