The U.S. government will run out of supplies of COVID-19 treatments known as monoclonal antibodies as soon as late May and will have to scale back plans to get more unless Congress provides more funding, the White House said on March 15.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration revised the emergency use authorization (EUA) for AstraZeneca’s Evusheld to a higher dose to be effective in the prevention of COVID-19.
The World Health Organization indicated WHO is tracking four Omicron subvariants: BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3. BA.2 has a growth advantage over BA.1, the variant responsible for the recent Omicron surge.
Eli Lilly and Co. entered an agreement with the U.S. government to supply up to 600,000 doses of the company’s developmental COVID-19 antibody drug for at least $720 million.
Britain’s GSK forecast growth in 2022 after racking up 1.4 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) in COVID-related sales in 2021, beating quarterly forecasts in the company’s first earnings report since rejecting Unilever’s bid for GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer arm.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has hit companies unevenly, some biopharma firms that have produced new drugs or vaccines against the disease have shown big spikes in drug sales. BioSpace reviewed five companies that produced non-vaccine treatments for COVID-19.
According to a recent study conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 76 percent of the adverse side effects (such as fatigue or headache) that people experienced after receiving their first COVID-19 vaccination were also reported by participants who received a placebo shot.
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE said on Jan. 25 they started a clinical trial to test a new version of their vaccine specifically designed to target the COVID-19 Omicron variant, which has eluded some of the protection provided by the original two-dose vaccine regimen.
The U.S. health regulator revised on Jan. 24 the emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 antibody treatments from Regeneron and Eli Lilly to limit their use, as the drugs are unlikely to work against the Omicron coronavirus variant.
GlaxoSmithKline and U.S. partner Vir Biotechnology will boost production of their antibody-based COVID-19 treatment by adding a second manufacturing plant to help meet soaring demand in the United States.
