Sanofi’s shares slid 5 percent on March 14 after a product candidate to fight a common type of breast cancer failed to slow progression of the disease in a clinical trial, knocking confidence in the French drugmaker’s drug development prowess.
Merck & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics announced they have supplied about 3.1 million courses of their antiviral drug against COVID-19, molnupiravir, to the U.S. government. In other news, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that vaccination against COVID-19 not only protects pregnant women against the disease but their babies as well.
Cortexyme Inc. said on Oct. 26 the company’s experimental oral pill failed to meet the main goals of improving cognitive and functional abilities in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease in a study.
As Merck & Co. and Pfizer Inc. prepare to report clinical trial results for experimental Covid-19 antiviral pills, rivals are lining up with what they hope will prove to be more potent and convenient oral treatments of their own.
Pfizer announced on Sept. 2 the dosing of the first patients in a Phase III trial assessing a single dose of the company’s investigational RSV bivalent prefusion F subunit vaccine candidate (RSVpreF) in adults ages 60 and older. One day earlier, Pfizer announced the initiation of a Phase II/III clinical study of 1,140 participants for an oral pill expected to be used in a broad population of Covid patients.
Britain’s GSK said an injection of the company’s cabotegravir drug given every two months was found to be 65 percent more effective in preventing HIV infections than Gilead’s Truvada daily oral pills.
A cheaper HIV prevention pill is going on sale in the United States, but experts say the price drop will not help as many people if doctors instead prescribe a newer, more expensive brand-name drug.
British drugmaker GSK applied for a license to market the company’s HIV medicine dolutegravir in a formulation designed to be easier for babies and children who are living with the virus to swallow.
Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk is aiming for a big slice of the multibillion-dollar diabetes market with a new pill approved by U.S. authorities that caters for patients with an aversion to needles.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Novo Nordisk’s Rybelsus (semaglutide) tablets 7 mg or 14 mg for adults with type 2 diabetes that along with diet and exercise may improve blood sugar.
