The drug screens prompted by the SARS and MERS outbreaks have been useful for quickly identifying drug candidates. But in terms of their epidemiology, “SARS and MERS were different from this coronavirus,” Allison McGeer explained at a Feb. 3 webinar by Evercore ISI. Read More
Touting the efforts his administration already has taken to lower U.S. prescription drug prices through increased competition, President Donald Trump placed the burden for further action squarely on Congress during his State of the Union address Tuesday, Feb. 4. Read More
Aimmune Therapeutics Inc. wasted no time moving ahead after last week’s FDA approval of Palforzia for peanut allergy as the Brisbane, Calif.-based company obtained an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize Xencor Inc.’s humanized monoclonal antibody, XmAb-7195, for treating allergic asthma. Read More
DUBLIN – Maat Pharma SA closed an €18 million (US$19.9 million) series B round to continue development of its standardized, off-the-shelf fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) therapy, MaaT-013. Read More
LONDON – The genomes of 38 different tumor types and the 47 million mutations that fostered their growth are revealed in unprecedented detail in 23 studies published in Nature and other journals on Feb. 6, 2020. Read More
Modest revenue growth and a 2020 outlook that left analysts uninspired about its near-term prospects pushed Gilead Sciences Inc. shares (NASDAQ:GILD) down about 2% to close Feb. 5 at $65.87, despite growing sales of its HIV medicine, Biktarvy (bictegravir, emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide), and what CEO Daniel O'Day called "a sense of urgency" around further business development. Read More
A half-day open meeting intended to examine “how the public perceives and values pharmaceutical quality,” convened by the Robert J. Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University in cooperation with the FDA, included a rundown of the agency’s oversight program, results of surveys to measure viewpoints of patients and providers – and tart commentary from a two-member “reactant panel.” Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Abbvie, Aivita, Emtora, Genprex, Menlo, Minerva, Phasebio. Read More
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Active Biotech, AIM Immunotech, ALK-Abelló, Bellicum, Bridge, Coda, Hoth, Kymera, Merck, Morphosys, Oncocyte, Spero, Tela, X-Chem. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Bioxcel, Vivus. Read More
