As the world saw about 200,000 new cases of COVID-19 this week, researchers began to deliver some of the first clinical data for prospective therapies—with some disappointments. The hyped anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine couldn’t beat placebo in a Chinese study, while repurposed HIV and influenza antivirals also underperformed. But hope remains as Big Pharma companies gear up to donate millions of chloroquine tablets should the drug prove effective, and Gilead cited overwhelming demand for its remdesivir. Elsewhere, the FDA authorized the first hand-held and point-of-care tests for the disease, and unlocked gas therapy and ventilator alternatives. Our top reads of the week are below.
Featured Story | | | Friday, March 20, 2020 As efforts to discover new COVID-19 medicines roll on, President Donald Trump and others this week focused attention on the decades-old malaria drug chloroquine. Bayer got things rolling with an initial donation of the drug, and now Novartis, Mylan and Teva are taking steps to deliver tens of millions of tablets. |
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Top Stories Of The Week Friday, March 20, 2020 As the biotech industry tries to match the pace of the COVID-19 pandemic with its own research response, we at FierceBiotech are rounding up the industry’s attempts to combat the virus after infection. Tuesday, March 24, 2020 Malaria drug chloroquine, AbbVie’s HIV combo therapy Kaletra and an influenza med called Arbidol are among top candidates that physicians are repurposing for the treatment of COVID-19. Despite backing from officials, though, the three have disappointed separately in two clinical trials in mild Chinese patients. Friday, March 20, 2020 The hunt is well underway for medicines to combat COVID-19, but it will be longer for vaccines than it will be for drug treatments. Here’s a guide to the 35 vaccines in development against COVID-19, including Moderna Therapeutics' phase 1 RNA shot, Pfizer and BioNTech's candidate hard on its heels and a host of preclinical prospects. Saturday, March 21, 2020 The FDA has authorized its first rapid, point-of-care diagnostic for the novel coronavirus—allowing physicians in hospitals, clinics and emergency rooms to test a sample for the disease in about 45 minutes. Thursday, March 26, 2020 With healthcare workers in the U.S. strapped for supplies amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, Merck & Co. is helping out with a donation of around 300,000 masks to the state of New Jersey. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is piecing together county-level guidelines to deal with the COVID-19 response.
2019 will likely go down as a landmark year for biopharma partnering, at least when looking at the sums involved. Monday, March 23, 2020 Since the early days of the current coronavirus outbreak, Gilead Sciences’ experimental antiviral drug remdesivir has been hailed as a leading hope. That halo has apparently overwhelmed the Big Biotech, which has temporarily stopped granting patients emergency access to remdesivir due to an “exponential increase” in requests. Monday, March 23, 2020 Eli Lilly is slashing its clinical trial activities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the novel coronavirus putting healthcare systems under tremendous strain, Lilly has decided to delay most trial starts and pause enrollment in most ongoing studies. Friday, March 20, 2020 Using a regulatory pathway that allows patients with life-threatening conditions to use unapproved therapies, the FDA has granted “emergency expanded access” to Bellerophon Therapeutics’ inhaled nitric oxide delivery system for treating the novel coronavirus. Tuesday, March 24, 2020 China’s use of Roche's Actemra for some COVID-19 patients has put the arthritis drug in the spotlight and set it up for a surge in demand. Roche is trying to stay ahead of that curve by upping production, even as it tests it on COVID-19. Friday, March 20, 2020 A Biogen employee who allegedly concealed her coronavirus symptoms on a flight back to China may face criminal charges. But first, the biotech has decided it wants nothing to do with the rogue staffer. “She is no longer an employee of Biogen,” the biotech said in a statement. Friday, March 20, 2020 While there is no business as usual anymore, pharma marketing is mostly staying the course for now in the shadow of COVID-19. A survey of ad agencies and communications firms that handle pharma clients found both slowdowns and bright spots, but mostly lots of question marks as the situation continues to unfold. Wednesday, March 25, 2020 After earning an FDA nod for breast cancer in December four months ahead of schedule, AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s HER2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate Enhertu is showing some early promise in a phase 1 trial in other cancer types. The antibody-drug conjugate produced a 55.6% objective response rate in HER2-positive non-small cell lung cancer patients. | |
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