COVID-19

Slower COVID-19 vaccine sales will see Moderna’s revenues decline this year, but the company is investing heavily to speed a new wave of therapies to the market.

In this week's podcast edition of Five Must-Know Things: the rise of Novo Nordisk; senior level changes at Novartis; Moderna’s progress against BA.2.86; major new CNS drugs coming; and Boehringer Ingelheim’s head of innovation on R&D priorities.

Some of China's makers of COVID-19 antivirals are fast-tracking neutralizing antibodies and peptide fusion inhibitors in clinical trials, while vaccine developers are embroiled in a tougher situation against the mutating coronavirus.

Pfizer said it also had preclinical data showing that the updated version of its vaccine has activity against the subvariant, which may be able to break through immunity

The company’s Phase II POC trial did not meet the pain primary endpoint, but fatigue may be more relevant in long COVID despite the condition’s overlap with fibromyalgia.

Emergex CEO and ex-research director at the University of Oxford, Thomas Rademacher, spoke with Scrip about the myth of the “Wuhan virus” and why synthetic T-cell adaptive vaccines are expected to be superior to RNA/mRNA ones. More partners are being sought for additional delivery mechanisms, the founder of the UK-based, clinical-stage biotech says in this podcast interview.

In this week's podcast edition of Five Must-Know Things: Roche’s TIGIT data leak; Regeneron gets important US approvals; COVID subvariant vaccine progress; Pfizer’s RSV vaccine extended approval; and Japan recommends lecanemab for Alzheimer’s.

The company is developing a next-generation antibody for prevention of COVID-19 that targets highly conserved regions of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and thus may be able to overcome resistance.

The companies are all preparing to make available vaccines targeted to Omicron XBB subvariants, with the expectation that demand in the US will be about 50 million to 100 million doses.

While not direct competitors in all therapeutic areas, Pfizer’s and Merck’s sales offered some stark contrasts in the second quarter.

In this week's podcast edition of Five Must-Know Things: Pfizer’s cost improvement and COVID outlook; Roche CEO outlines M&A criteria; Organon maintains women’s health focus; will Indian pharma families sell their stakes; and a look at new therapies in the pipeline for multiple myeloma.

If COVID-19 product sales don’t meet assumptions this fall, the company said it will consider a cost reduction program to better align costs with future revenue projections.

China's faltering macro economic steam indicates a slowdown in consumption and a lack of new growth engines, adding further woes to an already challenging environment for international players in the biopharma sector.

Chinese vaccine companies WestVac, Sinocelltech and Walvax/RNACure are leading domestic efforts to develop new shots targeting emerging SARS-CoV-2 subvariants.

Biocon subsidiary Syngene and Strides associate Stelis have entered a deal with the potential to change India’s vaccines and biologics landscape, as the former's growth plans are catapulted. Meanwhile, the Strides group gets to cut debt by selling a unit that made the ill-fated Sputnik Light COVID-19 vaccine and after Akston Biosciences terminated another COVID-19 vaccine alliance

The first sublicensing deals through MPP for Shionogi's oral COVID antiviral Xocova with seven firms in China, India, Ukraine and Vietnam suggest the global debut of generic versions will come earlier than usual after the original, which continues in multiple global Phase III programs in various settings. While sales hopes are high, the drug may also be hit by a price cut in its first and biggest market so far – Japan.