Biopharma News

Pfizer invested $68.5 million in a facility in Durham, NC.

The European Medicines Agency has accepted Sanofi’s marketing authorization application for olipudase alfa, a potential new therapy for acid sphingomyelinase deficiency, a rare disease.

Pfizer’s $6.7 billion acquisition of Arena will give them access to a portfolio of immuno-inflammatory therapies.

GlaxoSmithKline, together with the University of Oxford, has launched the Oxford-GSK Institute under a new collaboration that aims to study complex diseases to accelerate the success of drug discovery and drug development efforts.

GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology have received a conditional marketing authorization from MHRA for Xevudy (sotrovimab) in the treatment of COVID-19.

Leucid Bio will collaborate with Lonza to use Lonza’s Cocoon Platform for clinical and commercial manufacturing of CAR T cells for Leucid’s lead candidate.

Sanofi’s acquisition of Origimm Biotechnology will add to its pipeline of vaccine candidates for treating acne.

Pfizer found that two-dose recipients exhibited a more than 25-fold reduction in neutralization titers against Omicron relative to wild-type.

Doer Biologics will use Lonza’s XS technology in the production of its proprietary platform technology.

Roche’s Actemra/RoActemra (tocilizumab) is now approved in the EU for the treatment of adults with severe COVID-19 symptoms.

AstraZeneca struck a deal worth up to more than $3.5 billion with Ionis Pharmaceuticals for the rights to develop and commercialize their transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis treatment.

Longeveron’s Lomacel-B received an Orphan Drug Designation for the treatment of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.

Following mixed results from clinical trials, a panel of outside experts voted 13-10 to recommend Merck’s pill for Emergency Use Authorization.

Recordati’s blockbuster acquisition of EUSA Pharma gives them access to a portfolio of four drugs that treat rare cancers.

Moderna’s agreement with the UK government includes 29 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for delivery in 2022 and 31 million doses for delivery in 2023.

EMA has fully validated the marketing authorization application for Atara Biotherapeutics’ off-the-shelf allogeneic T-cell therapy, tab-cel (tabelecleucel), with an approval decision expected in 2022.

Chinook Therapeutics has formed a 50/50 joint venture with investors to develop kidney disease therapies in China.

BeiGene has acquired property in Hopewell, NJ to build a new manufacturing site and clinical R&D center for advanced new medicines.

Samsung Biologics, GreenLight Biosciences, and Environmental Impact Acquisition Corp. have partnered to advance GreenLight’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

The companies are testing their existing vaccines against the new variant of concern and are pursuing variant-specific versions.

The Comirnaty vaccine received a positive opinion from the EMA’s CHMP for children five to under 12 years of age.

Samsung Biologics will manufacture GreenLight BioSciences' COVID-19 vaccine candidate for clinical trials and commercial sales.

The study found that patients treated with BIMZELX (bimekizumab) achieved 50% or greater improvement in arthritis signs and symptoms relative to those treated with placebo.

Biogen received MHRA marketing authorization for VUMERITY (diroximel fumarate) for treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).

Takeda has exercised an option to co-develop and co-commercialize an investigational, brain-penetrant progranulin replacement therapy for the potential treatment of frontotemporal dementia-granulin.

Novo Nordisk’s 3.3 billion acquisition of Dicerna gives them access to their RNAi technology.

Secarna Pharmaceuticals and Achilles Therapeutics have entered into an agreement to optimize the development of T cell therapies in Achilles’ pipeline.

CGT Catapult and Deep Science Ventures have partnered to encourage innovative approaches to overcoming barriers in delivering advance therapies to patients.

GSK has been granted approval by the EC for its monoclonal antibody therapy, Nucala (mepolizumab), as a treatment for three additional eosinophil-driven diseases.

Novavax has announced that EMA has started its review of a conditional marketing authorization application for its COVID-19 vaccine, NVX-CoV2373.