Through the acquisition, Merck will gain access to VelosBio’s lead investigational candidate, VLS-101, an antibody-drug conjugate that targets receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1. Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced on Nov. 5, 2020…
Use of paper tube-pouch could reduce plastic in pharma packaging
A new tube-pouch made with paper has been developed which could reduce the use of plastic in pharmaceutical packaging. Developed by Toppan Printing, the producer says that due to the use of thinner film material, the conventional tube-pouch is easier to…
First COVID-19 patient dosed with allogeneic iNKT cell therapy
Agenus Inc. (NASDAQ: AGEN), an immuno-oncology company with an extensive pipeline of agents designed to activate immune response to cancers and infectious diseases, announced the dosing of the first COVID-19 patient with agenT-797, an allogeneic cell therapy, through its subsidiary,…
Novo Nordisk to buy Emisphere for $1.8 billion
Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk AS said Friday that it has agreed to buy Emisphere Technologies Inc. and the royalty stream obligations of its Eligen oral drug-delivery platform for a total of $1.8 billion. Emisphere Technologies is a drug-delivery company…
Stem Cells Offer Hope of Treatment for COVID-19 Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)
Researchers from the University of California San Francisco (San Francisco, CA, USA) are studying whether cells drawn from deep inside the bones can hold hope for the sickest of COVID-19 patients who have severe lung injury called acute respiratory distress…
Novavax COVID-19 vaccine granted Fast Track Designation by U.S. FDA
Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), a late-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track Designation for NVX-CoV2373, the Company’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Currently in late-phase…
AlpVision Offers a Solution to Protect COVID-19 Medicines from Counterfeiting
AlpVision has announced it is launching the “AlpVision COVID-19 Initiative”, a programme aimed to help pharmaceutical companies protect their medicines relevant to COVID-19 against counterfeiting. The initiative involves using a crytoglyph on the packaging of the medicinal products. According to…
FDA grants emergency authorisation to Lilly’s COVID-19 antibody
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an emergency use authorisation for Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody bamlanivimab in high-risk COVID-19 patients. Bamlanivimab is now available under emergency use for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in adults…
The pandemic is accelerating transformation agendas in the clinical research industry
Before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, leading organizations in clinical research had been gradually discovering, experimenting with, and implementing remote technology. The pandemic has catapulted their transformation agendas forward. This acceleration challenges the industry by shortening often lengthy vendor…
Russia’s COVID-19 Vaccine Arrives in India for Human Clinical Trials
The Russian ‘Sputnik V’ vaccine for COVID-19 has arrived in India following the nod to Pharma major Dr Reddy’s Laboratories to conduct an adaptive phase 2/3 human clinical trial in the country. In a video that surfaced on media, containers…
