The U.S. government will buy another $1 billion worth of the Covid-19 pill made by Merck & Co. Inc. and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP, the companies said on November 9.
Britain on November 4 became the first country in the world to approve a potentially game-changing Covid-19 antiviral pill jointly developed by U.S.-based Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, in a boost to the fight against the pandemic.
Merck is widening the company’s reach into the treatment of autoimmune diseases by investing in Synthekine, a bioresearch company that develops engineered cytokine therapeutics.
Merck & Co. Inc. on Oct. 28 said the company’s experimental Covid-19 drug could bring in between $5 billion and $7 billion in sales through the end of 2022, assuming the antiviral drug molnupiravir gains U.S. authorization in December 2021.
Merck & Co. signed a licensing agreement with the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) that will allow more companies to manufacture generic versions of the company’s experimental oral antiviral Covid-19 treatment, the U.S. drugmaker and the organization announced on Oct. 27.
Seattle-based Mozart Therapeutics closed on a $55 million Series A financing round, led by seed financier ARCH Venture Partners along with Sofinnova Partners. Additional investors were Eli Lilly and Company, MRL Ventures Fund, an early-stage fund run by Merck & Co., Leaps by Bayer, Altitude Life Science Ventures, and Alexandria Venture Investments.
Merck on Oct. 25 revealed positive results from two Phase III trials on a potential treatment for adults with HIV-1 infection and are virologically suppressed on different antiretroviral regimens (ART).
Lexington, Mass.-based Agenus withdrew the company’s Biologics License Application (BLA) for the PD-1 inhibitor balstilimab from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Merck is recalling some 22,000 vials of 500 mg Cubicin for intravenous injection following a complaint that a piece of glass was found in one of the vials post reconstitution.
Atea Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s experimental Covid-19 antiviral pill being developed with Roche failed to help patients with mild and moderate Covid-19 in a small study of mostly low-risk patients, driving the Boston-based drugmaker’s shares down more than 65 percent on Oct. 19.
