Novartis said a late-stage clinical trial of ruxolitinib on top of standard therapy showed no significant reduction in severe complications of Covid-19, including death, respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation or admission to the intensive care unit.
The first shipments of Covid-19 vaccine left on trucks and planes early on Dec. 13, kicking off a historic effort to stop a surging pandemic that is claiming more than 2,400 lives a day in the United States.
A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel on Dec. 12 recommended the nation’s first COVID-19 vaccine, helping clear the way for public health authorities to begin the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history.
The United States hit a record 16 million Covid-19 cases on Dec. 12, with deaths closing in on the 300,000 mark, as millions of doses of a new vaccine were expected to start rolling out across the nation on Dec. 13.
AstraZeneca entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Alexion Pharmaceuticals for a total consideration to Alexion shareholders of $39 billion or $175 per share.
The chief executive of Germany’s BioNTech SE said the biggest challenge facing the company and partner Pfizer Inc. now that their Covid-19 vaccine is authorized for use in the United States will be to scale up manufacturing to meet huge demand.
The U.S. government will get an additional 100 million doses of Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, expected to be delivered in the second quarter of 2021 if authorized.
Four more companies secured their place on the stock ticker in a record-breaking year before 2020 comes to a close.
Initially traced to about 100 cases of Covid-19 that spread across the United States, the number of infections linked to a Biogen corporate conference held in February 2020 at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf Hotel has grown exponentially and researchers estimate the total could be as many as 300,000.
Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline said clinical trials of their Covid-19 vaccine showed an insufficient immune response in older people, delaying its launch to late 2021 and marking a setback in the global fight against the pandemic.
