WELCOME TO FIERCE LIFE SCIENCES WEEKLY DIGEST At the virtual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla described the company’s “out of the box” manufacturing, as its partner BioNTech projects 2 billion COVID-19 doses delivered in 2021. Still, newly emerging strains of the coronavirus continue to cause worry—however the FDA says today’s vaccines will probably still work, though some tests may become less accurate. Also, new data from Eli Lilly’s donanemab immunotherapy showed it could help clear amyloid plaques out of the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Those stories follow below, and check out our full JPM week coverage at Fierce Pharma andFierce Biotech. | |
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Featured Story | By Ben Adams The amyloid theory continues to grasp at life as Eli Lilly has unveiled new phase 2 data from donanemab that show it can help Alzheimer’s disease patients by clearing these plaques out of the brain. read more |
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Top Stories Of The Week By Carly Helfand Earlier this week, Pfizer partner BioNTech upped the pair’s 2021 COVID-19 output projection to 2 billion doses for 2021, up from a previous estimate of up from a previous estimate of 1.3 billion. But how will the companies get there? By doing things “very differently and very out of the box in manufacturing,” CEO Albert Bourla explained Tuesday. read more By Angus Liu The new vaccine technology mRNA is making waves these days as COVID-19 shots based on it deliver efficacy that’s unrivaled by other platforms. BioNTech's Pfizer-partnered vaccine Comirnaty is one of those vaccines. Now, the German biotech’s CEO, Ugur Sahin, has led a study showing an mRNA vaccine was effective against multiple sclerosis in mice. read more By Conor Hale The FDA is alerting healthcare professionals that mutations in the novel coronavirus’s genetic code—such as the type powering the fast-spreading variant identified in the U.K.—can trigger false negative results in gold-standard COVID-19 tests. read more By Eric Sagonowsky J&J is in the “final stages” of data analysis for its phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial, CEO Alex Gorsky said Monday. And that could be a "game-changer," as Operation Warp Speed's Moncef Slaoui recently put it. The company's one-dose regimen could accelerate and simplify a faltering immunization push. read more By Arlene Weintraub Interferon increases levels of the cell surface protein ACE2, which serves as the entry point for COVID-19, raising concerns that Synairgen and others developing inhaled interferon-based treatments might ultimately fail. Now, a U.K. team has discovered interferon only raises levels of a short form of ACE2 that may actually be protective. read more By Eric Sagonowsky With COVID-19 vaccine launches gaining steam—and an unprecedented level of media coverage zeroed in—pharma companies of all stripes should brace for a wave of side effect reports, experts say. And it won't just intensify adverse-event tracking, but the threat of lawsuits, too. read more By Ben Adams A little over a week after Sinopharm nabbed the world’s first full approval from Chinese regulators on a 79% efficacy showing for its COVID-19 vax, fellow Chinese native Sinovac, using similar tech, has shown pretty much the same numbers. read more By Angus Liu Even after shelling out $74 billion for Celgene and $13.1 billion for MyoKardia, Bristol Myers Squibb still has “significant financial flexibility” for deal-making. Specifically, the company's shopping for "midsize bolt-on deals" that look a lot like the MyoKardia buy, CEO Giovanni Caforio said. read more By Ben Adams German biotech CureVac shouldn’t be discounted from being a major COVID-19 vaccine player despite being at the tail end of the race to market. read more By Arlene Weintraub The potential benefit of IL-6 inhibitors like Roche’s Actemra and Sanofi and Regeneron’s Kevzara in COVID-19 patients was recognized by scientists early on during the pandemic, but clinical trials have produced mixed results. Now, backed by new data, U.K. scientists are recommending both drugs as key to ending the pandemic. read more By Conor Hale Through a new partnership with Google, Boehringer Ingelheim hopes to harness quantum computing to simulate the body’s molecular mechanics. read more By Beth Snyder Bulik Moderna tapped veteran Amgen executive Corinne Le Goff to head up marketing and sales as it rolls out its COVID-19 vaccine. Formerly senior VP and president of Amgen's U.S. business, Le Goff will add commercial heft to the biotech, which has never before launched a product. read more By Fraiser Kansteiner Three doses of Boehringer Inghelheim’s hypertension med Catapres, also known as clonidine hydrochloride, are in short supply, according to a notice posted to the FDA’s website Wednesday. But with a plethora of generics on tap, that’s no problem for patients, BI figures. Now, the company’s decided to quietly cull the decades-old product. read more Resources Sponsored By: Polpharma Biologics Innovative cell lines and early process development are critical to generate a high producing cell lines alongside a USP strategy to meet high quality standards. 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