A panel of outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to endorse emergency use of Moderna Inc.’s coronavirus vaccine during a meeting on Dec. 17, as the nation prepares to roll out a second vaccine.
Diabetes drugmaker Novo Nordisk will start a late-stage clinical trial to test the company’s GLP-1 analogue semaglutide as a treatment for early Alzheimer’s disease.
AstraZeneca is acquiring Alexion Pharmaceuticals for $39 billion, with the deal expected to close in the third quarter of 2021.
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition began December 5 with numerous presentations, abstracts and posters.
Biogen will take a $650 million stake in Sage Therapeutics and make an upfront payment of $875 million to jointly develop and sell treatments for depression and other neurological disorders.
To support the long-term goals of Novartis, the Swiss pharma giant is initiating a share-buyback program of up to $2.5 billion that is expected to be carried out over the next few months.
Amgen Inc. reported that third-quarter 2020 adjusted profit rose 17% due to stronger sales of drugs such as the osteoporosis treatment Prolia and the psoriasis medication Otezla, bucking challenges from lower drug prices and Covid-19.
Pfizer indicated that the company’s Phase III clinical trial of 44,000 volunteers with partner BioNTech needed less than 2,000 people to be fully enrolled.
Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi) announced that the rare disease drug maker’s phase 3 study of avatrombopag did not meet the clinical trial’s primary endpoint, sending the company’s shares sharply down.
Novartis’ bid to expand the company’s $2.1 million-per-patient gene therapy Zolgensma to more spinal muscular atrophy patients faces a possible delay after U.S. regulators requested another study in older children getting the drug via a spinal infusion.
