The deadly SARS-CoV-2 virus that has cost nearly 6 million lives worldwide and disrupted global economies has brought the biopharma industry $82 billion in sales revenue since the start of the pandemic, with guidance for another $88 billion this year. Read More
With the first global approval by Health Canada in hand, Medicago Inc. aims to provide 20 million doses this year of Covifenz – which itself represents another first, as a plant-originated, virus-like particle, recombinant, adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine. “Hopefully, if all goes well, we’ll be able to do it faster than the last day of the last month” of the year, said Brian Ward, medical officer of Quebec City-based Medicago, a unit of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp., which partnered on Covifenz with Glaxosmithkline plc (GSK). Read More
Odeon Therapeutics Inc. has acquired rights to two cancer candidates from Obi Pharma Inc. in a deal worth up to $200 million. The transaction gives Shanghai-based Odeon rights to develop, register, and commercialize the antibody-drug conjugate OBI-999 and a therapeutic cancer vaccine OBI-833 in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Read More
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. Read More
Chinese investment in U.S. companies is dropping, but Chinese biopharma firms are increasingly eyeing licensing deals on early stage inventions patented by U.S. universities, Lin Sun-Hoffman, founding partner at Liu, Chen & Hoffman LLP, said during a Feb. 24 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office webinar on biopharma patents in China. Read More
Biorchestra Co. Ltd. has raised ￦54 billion ($45.1 million) in its latest series C fundraising, which will boost the development of the company’s lead RNA-based candidate for treating neurodegenerative diseases. BMD-001 is Daejeon, South Korea-based Biorchestra’s antisense oligonucleotide candidate for treating Alzheimer’s disease. Read More
Shouti Inc. has established subsidiary Basecamp Bio to navigate the complex challenges of membrane protein structure-based drug discovery. Using Shanghai and San Francisco-based Shouti’s drug discovery engine, Basecamp is intended to prosecute challenging drug discovery targets, including G-protein coupled receptors, and add new assets to Shouti’s development pipeline. Read More
PERTH, Australia – Biopharma stakeholders are furious about the consultation process the Australian government has pursued with its review of the country’s National Medicines Policy, and they are asking the government to hold off on making any changes until after the federal election that is scheduled for May. Read More
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) always had a full schedule, but COVID-19 amped it up. William Schaffner, who joined ACIP in 1982, talks with BioWorld's Lee Landenberger about the committee and how it makes the big decisions that affect public health policy. Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Alessa. Ayala, Cytokinetics, Epicentrix, Jupiter, Kodiak, Marinus, Orpha, Recce, Relmada, Sirnaomics.
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Astrazeneca, Atamyo, Conserv, Endpoint, Grifols. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Glaxosmithkline, Hightide, Sanofi. Read More
