About a year-and-a-half after the sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the onslaught of COVID-19 therapeutic and vaccine development that followed, the biopharma industry boldly tackles a slew of ongoing issues from vaccine hesitancy and supply inequities to the ramifications of a potential intellectual property waiver and the pressing need to prepare global systems for the next pandemic.
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Aim, Altan, Antengene, Astrazeneca, Athira, Ethypharm.
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Biogen, Curevac, Harbour, Kancera, Pfizer, Qpex, Satsuma, Targovax, Tarsus, Viking.
Diagnostics powerhouse Danaher Corp. has agreed to buy Aldevron LLC, a privately held biotech company that supplies a key ingredient for COVID-19 vaccines, from EQT VIII Fund for $9.6 billion in cash. Based in Fargo, N.D., with additional operations in Madison, Wis., Aldevron makes high-quality plasmid DNA, mRNA and recombinant proteins used in vaccines, gene and cell therapy, gene editing and diagnostic applications.
Mcurex Therapeutics Inc. will work with Samyang Holdings Corp. to develop an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19, advancing its bid to become the first Korean company to do so.
The U.S. government on June 17 announced plans for a multi-faceted $3.2 billion investment in the development and manufacture of new antivirals for preventing serious COVID-19 illness and death.
LONDON – Curevac NV blamed the high number of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants after its COVID-19 vaccine failed to meet the primary endpoint in the interim analysis of the phase IIb/III trial. The vaccine, Cvncov, was only 47% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections in the 40,000-person study.
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