Access To Medicine

J&J Considers Licensing COVID-19 Vaccine to South African Company

by Samantha McGrail

Johnson & Johnson recently announced a potential licensing agreement for its COVID-19 vaccine with Aspen SA Operations (Pty) Ltd, based in South Africa.  The companies will work towards a...

CVS Health Initiatives Increase Affordability, Access To Medicine

by Samantha McGrail

CVS Health recently announced several initiatives to boost affordable healthcare and increase access to medicine for customers.  First, the company named Prem Shah to the newly created role of...

Pfizer, AWS Collaborate To Improve Drug Development, Manufacturing

by Samantha McGrail

Pfizer and Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently collaborated to create innovative, cloud-based solutions to improve drug development, manufacturing, and distribution for clinical trials.  The...

Novo Nordisk Enters Pharma Acquisition Deal For RNAi Therapies

by Samantha McGrail

Novo Nordisk recently entered into a pharma acquisition deal with Dicerna Pharmaceuticals to increase its pipeline of RNAi therapies and technology platforms.  Dicerna develops RNAi-based...

Moderna Doses First Patients in Phase 2 Study of mRNA RSV Vaccine

by Samantha McGrail

Moderna recently dosed the first participant in the Phase 2/3 study of its mRNA respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine candidate. mRNA-1345 is an RSV vaccine for a prefusion F glycoprotein,...

FDA Approves First Treatment for Children with Achondroplasia

by Samantha McGrail

FDA recently approved Voxzogo injection for children five years of age and older with achondroplasia and open epiphyses.  Achondroplasia is the most common form of dwarfism. Individuals living...

Gilead Boosts Oncology Pipeline With 3 Clinical-Stage Programs

by Samantha McGrail

Gilead recently added three programs in Arcus Biosciences’ clinical-stage portfolio, including antibodies and small molecules, to its oncology pipeline. Specifically, Gilead exercised its...

US Gov’t Purchases 10M Courses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 Antiviral

by Samantha McGrail

The US government recently purchased 10 million courses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 antiviral candidate, PAXLOVID.  Under the terms of the agreement, the government will acquire 10 million...

Moderna’s mRNA Therapeutic Helps Patients With Heart Failure

by Samantha McGrail

Moderna recently announced that its mRNA therapeutic for heart failure patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery met its primary endpoint in a Phase 2 study.  The...

FDA Expands Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Authorization

by Samantha McGrail

FDA recently expanded the emergency use authorization (EUA) for a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to include individuals 18 years of age and older. Caregivers can administer the...

FDA Approves Rare Blood Disease Injection For Adults

by Samantha McGrail

FDA recently approved PharmaEssentia’s injection to treat adults with polycythemia vera, a rare blood disease that causes overproduction of red blood cells.  The monopegylated, long-acting...

Pfizer, BioNTech, Zipline Deliver First COVID-19 Vaccines in Ghana

by Samantha McGrail

Pfizer, BioNTech, and instant logistics company, Zipline, collaborated to deliver authorized mRNA COVID-19 vaccines requiring ultra-cold-chain in Ghana.  The companies recently developed and...

Pfizer, Biohaven Commercialize Generic Drug For Migraine Attacks

by Samantha McGrail

Pfizer and Biohaven Pharmaceuticals recently collaborated to commercialize rimegepant, a generic drug used to treat migraine attacks, in markets outside of the US. Commercialized as Nurtec ODT in the...

GSK’s Daprodustat Effective in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients

by Samantha McGrail

GSK recently announced that its drug, daprodustat, was safe and effective in patients with anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD).  The Phase 3 ASCENT trial studied the hypoxia-inducible...

Merck’s COVID-19 Treatment Receives First Authorization in UK

by Samantha McGrail

Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics recently announced that the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) authorized their COVID-19 treatment for adults. The UK’s...

FDA Approves Novartis’ Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Treatment

by Samantha McGrail

FDA recently approved Novartis’ Scemblix to treat chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) for adult and pediatric patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive CML in chronic phase. Scemblix is the...

CDC Recommends Pfizer- BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for Children

by Samantha McGrail

The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recently recommended Pfizer and BioNTech’s pediatric COVID-19 vaccine for children five to 11 years of age. The organization now...

Eli Lilly Drug Proves Effective In Adults With Type 2 Diabetes

by Samantha McGrail

Eli Lilly and Company recently announced that tirzepatide elicited superior A1C and body weight reductions from baseline in adults with type 2 diabetes with increased cardiovascular risk.  Data...

FDA Authorizes Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for Children

by Samantha McGrail

FDA recently granted emergency use authorization to Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children five through 11 years of age. The agency based its decision on data from a Phase 2/3...

FDA Approves Expansion of Gilead’s HIV Drug in Pediatric Patients

by Samantha McGrail

FDA recently approved a new low-dose tablet dosage form of Gilead’s HIV-1 drug, Biktarvy, in pediatric patients. The agency approved the new dosage for children weighing at least 30 pounds who...