Patients were used as guinea pigs but denied access to resulting therapies. This time, Big Pharma must be held to account

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The year I turned 11, my uncle Josiah Ssesanga was admitted to a hospital in Uganda with meningitis. It was 1994, and he was HIV positive. Between him and death stood a tattered post-civil war health system.

Treatments for HIV and Aids existed in other parts of the world, but in Uganda they were mostly limited to those used in clinical trials. For my uncle’s particular infection – cryptococcal meningitis – there was a drug called Fluconazole. But he didn’t know it existed; regardless, he wouldn’t have been able to afford it. and even among patients who took it, only 12% survived beyond six months.

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Related: Fear, bigotry and misinformation – this reminds me of the 1980s Aids pandemic | Edmund White

Firm’s recent success could have been very different had it been bought out by Pfizer in 2014

It’s perhaps not surprising that the worth of healthcare companies should emerge during a global pandemic, but we should offer thanks for the UK’s big pharma twins – AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline.

The former, with its share price at all-time high, is now jostling with Shell and Unilever for the title of biggest company in the FTSE 100 index. Successful research bets, especially on cancer drugs, have transformed Astra.

Drugmaker will manufacture and distribute vaccine if human trials are successful

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AstraZeneca, the Cambridge-based pharmaceutical group, is teaming up with Oxford University to manufacture and distribute a coronavirus vaccine if clinical trials currently under way show it is effective.

News of the partnership boosted AstraZeneca’s share price, helping it to become Britain’s most valuable company by market capitalisation.

Related: The hunt for a coronavirus vaccine – a perilous and uncertain path

Gilead’s remdesivir, which has been hailed as one of the few truly promising treatments for COVID-19 at this early stage of the ongoing pandemic, has failed in its first randomised clinical trial, leaked data has revealed.

The European Medicines Agency’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) has confirmed that the risks from using Picato are too high to end its suspension.

Sanofi’s MedQuadfi Meningococcal Conjugate Vaccine has scored FDA approval for the prevention of invasive meningococcal disease, becoming the first and only product available in the US for this indication in patients of at least two years old.

Almost half of Americans believe that the coronavirus was created in a lab, according to an April survey of 6,300 people.

Scott Morrison, the Australian Prime Minister, has called for an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus, as Australia becomes one of China’s most vocal critics of its response to the pandemic.

A Phase 3 study of Sanofi and Regeneron’s Libtayo (cemiplimab) as a monotherapy for advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has been stopped early after showing strong overall survival benefit, it has emerged.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) wrote a letter to Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey urging the wider use of hydroxychloroquine, based on data they have collected.

A “landmark” partnership has been struck between AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford in the ongoing battle against COVID-19, with the former agreeing to aid in the development and large-scale manufacture of the latter’s potential recombinant adenovirus vaccine for the prevention of novel coronavirus infection.

A US federal judge has ruled that generic versions of the cancer treatment Bendeka infringe on four separate patents, and has delayed them from launching until 2031.

President Donald Trump has vowed to cut the US’s reliance on foreign drugs, singling out China and Ireland as countries he wants to stop buying pharmaceuticals from.

Sanofi and Regeneron’s have lifted the lid on new topline data on their PD-1 inhibitor Libtayo (cemiplimab) in patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma (BCC), the most common skin cancer in the world, with around two million new cases diagnosed each year in the US alone.

A French patient who suffered from pneumonia in December actually had COVID-19, it has been revealed.

Alexion has announced it is to acquire Boston-based blood disorder specialist Portola Pharmaceuticals in a transaction to the value of $1.41 billion in cash.

The FDA has awarded marketing authorisation to Novartis for the Oral MET inhibitor Tabrecta for the first-line treatment of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer in patients whose tumors have a mutation that leads to MET exon 14 skipping (METex14), regardless of whether they have previously received any type of treatment.

NICE has revealed that it has recommended the NHS use of Roche’s Kadcyla (trastuzumab emtansine) for HER2+ breast cancer in patients who have residual invasive disease in the breast or lymph nodes after receiving neoadjuvant treatment including a HER2-targeted agent.

AZ has pledged to make the vaccine at cost for the duration of the pandemic

Psoriasis therapy may be a potential treatment for COVID-19

A collaboration in COVID-19 between immunology specialist Vir Biotechnology and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals…

India’s Lupin has announced positive top-line results from its pivotal Phase III clinical trial to…

A new collaboration between Shanghai’s Junshi Biosciences and Eli Lilly will seek to develop novel…

The COVID-19 pandemic did not stop China from launching its national blockchain-based service network…

Farxiga (dapagliflozin) has been approved in the US to reduce the risk of cardiovascular (CV) death and…

The submission of additional information, upon the request of the US regulator, has delayed the action…

The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for many life sciences companies due to a…

A multi-year collaboration between China’s Innovent Biologics and USA-based Eli Lilly is bearing fruit,…

Late Wednesday, the US Food and Drug Administration said it has granted accelerated approved for Tabrecta…

In another strategic M&A deal announced so far this month, PTC Therapeutics has entered into an agreement…

COVID-19 is having varying effects on different markets within healthcare, with drug delivery systems…

The US Food and Drug Administration has granted accelerated approval for Retevmo (selpercatinib) capsules…

Novartis is using familiar faces—real patients from its Cosentyx TV commercials—to thank healthcare workers and promise support for patients. It’s a shift away from product-centered TV ads as Novartis adjusts its Cosentyx DTC effort during the COVID-19 crisis to highlight resources for patients, the drugmaker said.

Even a pandemic can’t slow down Seattle Genetics and Astellas' new bladder cancer treatment Padcev, which "blew out sales expectations" for the first quarter, analysts said. And now, they're jacking up their long-term sales estimates for the drug as a result.

AstraZeneca has watched superstar SGLT2 diabetes med Farxiga nail trial after trial in highly coveted kidney and heart failure indications, with the FDA expediting reviews to back them up. The one thing AstraZeneca was missing? The agency taking Farxiga across the finish line. 

German drugmaker Fresenius Kabi has made major investments in its U.S. manufacturing operations in recent years with some mixed quality results along the way. Now, one of the drugmaker's products faces a recall for more manufacturing woes.

The world is waiting for Gilead Sciences to set a price tag for remdesivir, the first brand-new med authorized to treat COVID-19. Its choice will affect Gilead's reputation and bottom line, set a tone for follow-up meds—and either help polish up the pharma industry's image or create a new flashpoint for criticism.

Biogen has had a rocky road with its controversial Alzheimer's disease candidate aducanumab, resurrected late last year. But despite postponing the drug's FDA filing half a year, Biogen is still moving forward with plans to scale up production if aducanumab eventually passes muster.

Global drugmakers are working overtime to keep supplies coming amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. But in manufacturing facilities packed with workers, COVID-19 presents a particularly difficult challenge—and now one Indian plant has been forced to shutter due to a rash of infections. 

Unlike its first U.K. reimbursement negotiations, Roche’s HER2 antibody-drug conjugate has won quick National Institute for Health and Care Excellence backing for routine NHS coverage to prevent HER2-positive breast cancer from returning after surgery in the so-called adjuvant setting.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday reported 1,248,040 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 28,974 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 2,180 to 75,477.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 1,251 to 168,551, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Saturday.

China reported one new coronavirus case for Friday, unchanged from the day before, data from the national health authority showed on Saturday.

Thailand reported four new coronavirus cases and one more death on Saturday, bringing the total to 3,004 cases and 56 deaths since the outbreak started in January.