Merck & Co.

Merck acquired Maryland-based OncoImmune and the Covid-19 therapeutic candidate CD24Fc for $425 million in upfront cash two months after the Phase III asset demonstrated efficacy during an interim analysis.

Novartis inked an exclusive worldwide license and collaboration deal with Australia-based Mesoblast to develop, commercialize and manufacture remestemcel-L for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), including when it is linked to Covid-19.

Paris-based Sanofi and Amsterdam-based Kiadis Pharma inked a deal for Sanofi to acquire the entire share capital of Kiadis.

Leading pharmaceutical companies – including Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca – are racing ahead to develop and distribute a Covid-19 vaccine.

Eli Lilly

The U.S. government will pay as much as $1.19 billion to Eli Lilly to secure nearly 1 million doses of the company’s experimental Covid-19 antibody treatment, a drug similar to a treatment that U.S. President Donald Trump received.

French drugmaker Sanofi and Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline will supply 200 million doses of their Covid-19 candidate vaccine to a global inoculation scheme backed by the World Health Organization.

Shares of Cara Therapeutics were up in trading after the company struck a licensing agreement worth up to $290 million with Switzerland’s Vifor Pharma for the commercialization of a treatment for severe itching associated with chronic kidney disease.

Dyno Therapeutics announced a licensing and collaboration deal with Roche worth up to $1.8 billion to apply the Cambridge, Mass.-based company’s CapsidMap platform to the development of adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors for gene therapies for central nervous system diseases and liver-directed therapies.

The European Union agreed to pay more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to Gilead for a six-month supply of the company’s antiviral drug remdesivir, shortly before the publication of final results for the largest trial of the Covid-19 medication.

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals struck a licensing agreement deal with Takeda to develop a Phase II investigational RNA interference (RNAi) therapy for the treatment of alpha-1 antitrypsin-associated liver disease (AATLD).