On Wednesday, October 23, 2019, ACRO hosted a Congressional Briefing on Capitol Hill. With the help of the Congressional Research & Development...

Investigation of combination therapies including Bayer’s chloroquine and interferon beta-1b to foster much needed solutions for patients in fight against coronavirus pandemic / Bayer Canada to make CAD 1.5 million (approximately 1 million euros) financial commitment and to supply products in support of the research / Plans to include more than 60 contributing research locations involving 6.000 patients

Two companies jointly have capacity to manufacture hundreds of millions of doses

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Two of the world’s biggest vaccine companies have joined forces in an “unprecedented” collaboration to develop a Covid-19 vaccine.

GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi, which combined have the largest vaccine manufacturing capability in the world, are working together on a hi-tech vaccine they say could be in human trials within months.

What is Covid-19?

Government bodies, industry and charities to collaborate in research efforts

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• Coronavirus vaccine – when will we have one?

The government has announced a new vaccines taskforce to help the development of a vaccine for Covid-19 and ensure its rapid production and rollout if one arrives.

The business secretary, Alok Sharma, also gave details of cash grants for work into both vaccines and potential treatments. Among the projects receiving cash is one led by Public Health England (PHE), which hopes to develop an antibody drug, something that has the potential to work as both a prophylactic and a treatment for those infected.

Related: The hunt for a coronavirus vaccine

Hydroxychloroquine, also known by its brand name, Plaquenil, is a drug used to treat malaria. It is a less toxic version of chloroquine, another malaria drug, which itself is related to quinine, an ingredient in tonic water.

Any vaccine has to work, but it also has to be safe. Making it happen is one of the government’s biggest priorities

• Patrick Vallance is the UK government chief scientific adviser

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Covid-19 has made fundamental and long-lasting changes to the way we live our lives, not just in the UK, but across the world.

As we continue with social-distancing measures and deal with the most immediate issue of reducing the number of cases to protect the NHS and save lives, and keeping R, which is the average infection rate per person, below one, we also need to progress ways to tackle the disease in the longer term.

The vaccines taskforce will be working in lockstep with the public and private sector

Related: New UK taskforce to help develop and roll out coronavirus vaccine

The pressing need to find a solution to the pandemic means risks and shortcuts may have to be taken

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The stakes could hardly be higher; the prize still tantalisingly out of reach. It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of many millions of people rests on the discovery of a vaccine for Covid-19 – the only sure escape route from the pandemic.

Yet the optimism that accompanied the launch of Oxford University’s human trials this week has to be put in context, and the hurdles facing the scientists need to be understood.

Video meeting seen as global endorsement of WHO and sign of Trump’s isolation on world stage

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Global leaders have pledged to accelerate cooperation on a coronavirus vaccine and to share research, treatment and medicines across the globe. But the United States did not take part in the World Health Organization initiative, in a sign of Donald Trump’s increasing isolation on the global stage.

The cooperation pledge, made at a virtual meeting, was designed to show that wealthy countries will not keep the results of research from developing countries.

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

Related: ‘Please don’t inject bleach’: Trump’s wild coronavirus claims prompt disbelief

Provide access to new treatments, technologies and vaccines across the world.

Commit to an unprecedented level of international partnership on research and coordinate efforts to tackle the pandemic and reduce infections.

Reach collective decisions on responding to the pandemic, recognising that the virus’s spread in one country can affect all countries.

Learn from experience and adapt the global response.

Be accountable, to the most vulnerable communities and the whole world.

Trial of remdesivir shows fewer deaths and shorter hospital stays

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The first drug against Covid-19 to show promise in trials, reducing the time seriously ill people take to recover in hospital, is unlikely to be available widely in the UK soon, it has emerged.

Forty-six people in the UK have received remdesivir as part of the European arm of an international trial. Researchers would like to have given the drug to more patients but did not have the supplies.

Related: Coronavirus: what do scientists know about Covid-19 so far?

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

The partnership between AstraZeneca and the Jenner Institute should jolt our industry and banks

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There was some good news last week. Oxford University’s Jenner Institute announced it was teaming up with AstraZeneca to take a promising prototype of coronavirus vaccine into volume production by the autumn. Of course there are caveats – the institute’s confidence in its vaccine may not be validated by the trials that began last week.

Still it was heartening, after so much tragic incompetence, that a British university and a British company could forge a relationship of such potential national importance.

The piping through which emergency credit must flow is atrophied and weak

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.

There is a duty to ensure access to innovative treatments for patients with unmet need, but a health service gatekeeper must commit to efficient use of limited resources. Matt Fellows looks at how real-world evidence could be the key to reassessing how we determine the value of these drugs and ensure their swift availability.

COVID-19 continues to dominate the news cycle as we all try to maintain business as usual under the shadow of the pandemic. Just about every area of society and business has been hit and Life Sciences is no exception; the impact of the virus has been felt in every corner of the industry and our monthly issues aim to cut through the confusion to shed a light on that impact.

Novartis has revealed that the European Commission has moved to approve Cosentyx (secukinumab) for the treatment of active non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA) in adult patients.

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.

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.

Lonza Group AG and Moderna Inc have entered a deal to develop 1 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines a year.

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.

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

Eight new medicines recommended for approval

Experts says $20bn needed to vaccinate global population

It is hoped that the drug may prevent COVID-19

As with other companies, US drug giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech are moving forward their…

Shares of US biotech Akebia Therapeutics were up more than 35% at $11.72 by early afternoon today, after…

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

Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries today reported results for the quarter ended March 31, 2020,…

As had been widely expected, Gilead Sciences on Thursday announced that the Japanese Ministry of Health,…

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.

AbbVie and Allergan have waited for nearly a year for their much-discussed merger to pass muster. Finally, after pushback from consumer groups and tight scrutiny from regulators, the FTC has granted its green light. The partners face just one final hurdle to consummating their deal. 

Global coronavirus vaccine makers have been rolling out details about their manufacturing and launch plans—even ahead of any clinical data. Now, Pfizer says it will draw on three sites in the U.S., plus one in Belgium, for the early stages of a launch, provided its BioNTech-partnered shot wins a green light.

With its multibillion-dollar restructuring plan in the rearview mirror, Teva is pinning its future growth on two of its branded meds with high hopes. But generics are still central to the Israeli drugmaker's business, and increased demand due to COVID-19 gave Teva a welcome gift in the first three months of the year.

Chinese regulators have approved Novartis' Mayzent to treat relapsing multiple sclerosis in adults, the Swiss drug maker said in a statement on Saturday.

Slovakia on Friday recorded no new cases of coronavirus for the first time since March 10, government figures showed.

Three individuals were indicted today by a federal grand jury in the District of Massachusetts for conspiring to interfere with the civil rights of members of the Macedonia Church of God in Christ, a Springfield, Mass., church with a predominantly African-American congregation.

A Las Vegas federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Alan Rodrigues, a former pit boss and casino owner from Henderson, Nev.; Weston Coolidge, a businessman from Las Vegas; and Joseph Prokop, a former National Football League punter from Upland, Calif., with a tax fraud scheme for their promotion of a fraudulent tax product through the now defunct National Audit Defense Network (NADN).

The former finance director of an Orange County, Calif.-based valve company pleaded guilty today in connection with his role in a conspiracy to pay approximately $628,000 in bribes to numerous foreign government officials.

Michael Haynes, a practicing minister, and David Jett, both of Las Vegas, were sentenced to 37 months in prison and five years probation, respectively, by Chief U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hunt in Las Vegas. Haynes and Jett were also ordered to pay restitution of $834,000 and $150,000, respectively, to the U.S. Treasury.

Four individuals have been arrested and charged with carrying out a racially-motivated beating and conspiring to interfere with the civil rights of an African-American man in Nampa, Idaho.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has permanently barred Chalamar Muhammad and her husband, Curtis Muhammad, from preparing tax returns for others. Judge Harvey Bartle III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania entered the order of permanent injunction after the Coatesville, Pa., couple failed to defend against the government’s allegations.

Soripada Lubis, a naturalized American citizen originally from Indonesia, pleaded guilty today to harboring illegal aliens for commercial advantage and private financial gain. Lubis’ wife, Siti Chadidjah Siregar, a citizen of Indonesia, pleaded guilty to making false statements to federal agents who were investigating the scheme.

A Fairfield, Calif., couple was indicted today by a federal grand jury in Sacramento, Calif., on federal civil rights charges related to an alleged bias-motivated assault on an Indian-American couple. The two-count indictment alleges that on the evening of July 14, 2007, Joseph and Georgia Silva committed a bias-motivated assault on another couple at a public beach in South Lake Tahoe, Calif.

A former U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) employee who falsified his performance evaluation to justify an annual performance award to which he was not entitled pleaded guilty today to one count of making false statements.

In response to the Red River flooding in North Dakota and Minnesota and subsequent relief efforts, the National Center for Disaster Fraud is reminding members of the public to be aware of and report any instances of alleged fraudulent activity related to relief operations and funding for victims. Members of the public can report fraud, waste, abuse or allegations of mismanagement involving disaster relief operations through the Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721, the Disaster Fraud Fax at 225-334-4707 or the Disaster Fraud e-mail at disaster@leo.gov. Individuals can also report criminal activity to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

Three defendants were sentenced to prison today after pleading guilty in January 2008 to federal charges of running an “advance-fee” scheme that targeted U.S. victims with promises of millions of dollars.

The Department of Justice has initiated removal proceedings against a Sharon, Penn., resident who served as an armed SS guard at two Nazi concentration camps in Germany during World War II.