Gilead

Gilead Sciences Inc. decided not to pursue the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the company’s experimental rheumatoid arthritis treatment, filgotinib, following a meeting with the health regulator.

Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine appeared set for regulatory authorization after U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff endorsed it as safe and effective in released documents.

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.

Top U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulators said most Americans with allergies should be safe to receive the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s Biotech SE.

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.

Pfizer, COVID vaccine

The United States authorized the use of Pfizer Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine on Dec. 11, with the first inoculations expected within days, marking a turning point in a country where the pandemic has killed more than 295,000 people.

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.  

Five key genes are linked with the most severe form of Covid-19, scientists said, in research that also pointed to several existing drugs that could be repurposed to treat people who risk getting critically ill with the pandemic disease.