Biden declares the pandemic ‘over’

Today's Big News

Sep 19, 2022
 

Just one month after the FDA approved bluebird bio’s beta thalassemia gene therapy Zynteglo, the company has scored a second key approval. With the new approval, bluebird’s Skysona becomes the costliest medicine in the world at $3 million per treatment

It’s been a bruising 18 months in the biotech business, but some stakeholders now see signs of a rebound. Reflecting on the recent challenges, investors and others discussed the “new normal” and lessons from the bear market

President Joe Biden on Sunday delivered the news that so many have waited to hear. The pandemic is "over,” he told 60 Minutes. Still, his declaration caught some of his own medical experts by surprise. - Eric Sagonowsky

 

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A $3M gene therapy: Bluebird bio breaks its own pricing record with FDA approval of Skysona

The title of the world’s most expensive treatment has changed hands within one company in a single month. On the heels of $2.8 million price tag for gene therapy Zynteglo, bluebird bio will charge $3 million for freshly FDA-approved Skysona, and it won't have an outcomes-based payment structure.
 
 
 
 

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Fierce Biotech Summit: As the biotech market teases turning a corner, stakeholders say we're in a 'new normal'

After more than a year of a brutal biotech bear market, industry stakeholders say there are signs that the financial storm clouds may be parting. The discussion at the Fierce Biotech Summit came as private financing has rebounded in September.
 
 
 

Biden declares the COVID-19 pandemic over as experts keep wary eye on potential fall surge

President Joe Biden on Sunday night said that the COVID-19 pandemic is over. Experts also point to promising signs, but caution about a fall surge.
 
 
 

Johnson & Johnson pours €100M into contact lens plant in Ireland

Johnson & Johnson revealed a 100 million euro ($100 million) expansion of its National Technology Park facility in Limerick which will add up to 80 new jobs in operations, engineering and quality control. The contact lens plant currently employs about 1,600.
 
 
 

Teva CEO Schultz likely won't renew employment contract next year: reports

Teva's CEO Kare Schultz said he likely won't re-up his CEO contract next year. Meanwhile, the company is set to begin paying off a multibillion-dollar opioid settlement next year.
 
 
 

Extreme weather derailing healthcare delivery across the country, costing millions: report

Providers responding to a recent request for information reported an average 4.2 extreme weather events during the past five years, the costs of which ran anywhere from $28,000 to $22 million.
 
 
 

Everest appoints Gilead, COVID therapy vet CEO to bring therapies to market in China

Less than a month after Everest revealed that CEO Kerry Blanchard had resigned, the Chinese drug developer unveiled his replacement as pharma veteran Rogers Yongqing Luo.
 
 
 

Boston Scientific's TAVR safety net device misses study endpoint in reducing number of strokes

A randomized trial of Boston Scientific’s netlike Sentinel device—a miniature strainer designed to catch floating debris in the bloodstream before it can lodge itself within the brain and cause a stroke—failed to meet its primary endpoint as a protective barrier during heart procedures.
 
 
 

Genfit revs up liver failure strategy with $41M biotech buyout, bagging phase 2-ready candidate

Genfit’s pivot to acute-on-chronic liver failure has led it to the deal table. Having granted Ipsen global rights to its lead candidate late last year, the French biotech is using some of the proceeds to buy Versantis for 40 million Swiss francs ($41 million) upfront to bag a phase 2-ready ACLF drug candidate.
 
 
 

In Zantac litigation at state level, drugmakers face claims for cancer types not covered in federal action

Multidistrict litigation is looming for several pharma companies—including GSK, Sanofi, Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim and Thermo Fisher—that manufactured and marketed Zantac. The federal litigation targets five types of cancers allegedly caused by consumption of the heartburn medicine. But now, in state-side litigation, plaintiffs who used Zantac are filing lawsuits that cover other types of cancers.
 
 
 

Some sexual assault survivors face huge hospital bills if they seek emergency care

Survivors of sexual assault often find themselves billed over $3,600 for emergency room medical treatment they receive because of those attacks, according to an analysis of ED visits. Public health experts are pushing lawmakers to strengthen the provisions of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 to include coverage for therapeutic services for survivors and not just the collection of evidence.
 
 
 

Medtronic to roll out newest Evolut TAVR implant nationwide

The TAVR implant first received approval to treat aortic stenosis from the FDA in August 2021, and has been available through a limited release that began earlier this year.
 
 
 

Fortress falls: Virios flunks fibromyalgia study but claims drug may work in the omicron era

Virios Therapeutics’ antiviral fibromyalgia drug candidate IMC-1 has flunked a midphase clinical trial. But, while the prospect failed to improve pain more than placebo in the overall population, Virios is making the case that it was effective after the emergence of the omicron variant of COVID-19.
 
 
 

FDA plans advisory committee meeting to discuss racial bias built into pulse oximeters

Amid a growing wave of evidence demonstrating how pulse oximeters regularly deliver inaccurate readings for people with darker skin tones, the FDA is stepping in.
 
 
 
 
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'The Top Line': What Merck trial flops at ESMO may portend, lessons from COVID for monkeypox test EUAs and more

This week on "The Top Line," we chat about this year’s European Society for Medical Oncology meeting, where Merck presented a series of trial flops for Keytruda. We also discuss the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and how they are being applied to the monkeypox test EUA.
 
 

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Orally Inhaled & Nasal Drug Delivery: A Pipeline of Opportunities

 
 
 
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