| The ball is rolling: Gilead said its donation of 1.5 million worldwide remdesivir doses will run out by early summer, and the company will begin charging for the antiviral after that. Meanwhile, Moderna posted early data showing its vaccine prompted antibodies hostile to the coronavirus in eight people at low doses. Its share price soared—inflating the holdings of Moncef Slaoui, the former GSK vaccine head tapped to lead the Trump administration’s “Warp Speed” R&D efforts. This week, Slaoui said he would sell his $12.4 million in Moderna stock, and donate the most recent gains to cancer research. | |
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Featured Story | | | Wednesday, May 20, 2020 Gilead Sciences’ initial donation of remdesivir will be exhausted by early summer. The biotech will start charging for the drug in COVID-19 after that, and it could become a "multi-year commercial opportunity" rather than just a year or two of revenue flow, Gilead CFO Andrew Dickinson told an analyst. |
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Top Stories Of The Week Monday, May 18, 2020 Moderna’s COVID-19 prompted an immune response similar to those seen in patients who have recovered from infection. Eight patients who received the two lowest dose levels—25 micrograms and 100 micrograms—developed neutralizing antibodies against the virus two weeks after receiving their second dose. Friday, May 15, 2020 President Donald Trump officially unveiled the "Operation Warp Speed" program and its leaders on Friday. The group aims to develop a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year, and its newly appointed head—GSK veteran and former Moderna board member Moncef Slaoui—said Friday he's "confident" the team can deliver. Tuesday, May 19, 2020 As the Operation Warp Speed program races ahead with COVID-19 vaccine candidates, one of its leaders, former GSK exec Moncef Slaoui, kept millions of dollars of stock in Moderna, the biotech leading the pack. But now, after an influential senator challenged that ownership interest, he's planning to sell. Wednesday, May 20, 2020 Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat analyzed the data Moderna released earlier this week on its experimental COVID-19 mRNA vaccine and found some shortcomings that he believes the company will have to address in phase 3 trials. They include questions about the validity of comparators the company used and the durability of protection the vaccine offers. Monday, May 18, 2020 CureVac announced that its lead COVID-19 mRNA vaccine candidate generated “high levels” of virus-neutralizing titers in animal models and that it will launch a phase 1/2a clinical trial next month. But with Moderna's equally optimistic statements about a mouse trial of its mRNA vaccine candidate, some analysts are raising questions about what the preclinical data really means. Tuesday, May 19, 2020 U.K.-based AstraZeneca, partnered with the University of Oxford on a leading COVID-19 vaccine candidate, already inked a deal to supply millions of doses to its home country. Now, the drugmaker is scouting for partnerships to make the potential vaccine available worldwide. Monday, May 18, 2020 Just as GlaxoSmithKline launches an assault on Gilead Sciences’ HIV business in the treatment realm, it’s also targeting the prevention market with new data backing twice-monthly cabotegravir as a more convenient PrEP alternative to Gilead Sciences' Truvada. Friday, May 15, 2020 After pulling the plug on its first IPO attempt, ADC Therapeutics tried its luck during a pandemic. That gamble has paid off—the cancer drug developer reeled in $233 million in its Wall Street debut, outraising its original goal by more than $80 million. The proceeds will push the company’s lead programs through pivotal phase 2 studies. Friday, May 15, 2020 The FDA issued two warning letters to breast implant manufacturers this week, including Allergan for failing to complete postmarket safety studies documenting the risks of two implant models the company took off the worldwide market last year. Enrollment Showcase | | | Sponsored by: Drexel University Online Drexel University’s online graduate programs in biomedicine, clinical research, drug discovery, and molecular medicine were developed with working professionals in mind, providing you with the education, practical skills, and competitive edge you need to be successful in your career. Learn more. |
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