The big winners of the night were AstraZeneca and Roche as pharma, biotech and allied industries came together online on 2 December to celebrate during a ceremony hosted by Ed Balls.

The UK's MHRA has granted an emergency authorization to the mRNA-based vaccine just nine days after receiving the final Phase III results from Pfizer.

The cholesterol lowerer Crestor, which had peak sales of over $6.60bn, helped AstraZeneca reinvigorate a flagging pipeline. Now it is deemed surplus to requirements.

Second read-out maintains 94% level of efficacy, with a very early signal that it could outperform Pfizer’s rival mRNA candidate in preventing severe cases.

The French major and Regeneron have racked up another indication for Dupixent with the blockbuster getting approval in Europe to treat children with severe eczema.

Considerable value has been assigned to the companies developing coronavirus vaccines. Multiple suppliers and a met clinical need may erode much of that value after the pandemic.

Private Company Edition: Venture capital financings didn’t take a break during Thanksgiving week. In addition to the $800m Resilience raised to fund manufacturing services, SomaLogic closed a $121m series A round to fund its proteomic tools for drug discovery and diagnostics development.

The sale of BTG Specialty Pharmaceuticals to two affiliates of European specialty firm SERB leaves Boston Scientific with BTG’s interventional oncology and vascular products.

The big winners of the night were AstraZeneca and Roche as pharma, biotech and allied industries came together online on 2 December to celebrate during a ceremony hosted by Ed Balls.

The UK’s Vectura plc is gaining value from its back catalog of novel compounds through licensing its pan-JAK inhibitor, VR588, to a US start-up, the venture capital-backed Kinaset Therapeutics.

The cholesterol lowerer Crestor, which had peak sales of over $6.60bn, helped AstraZeneca reinvigorate a flagging pipeline. Now it is deemed surplus to requirements.

The companies think they can build out the indications for zuranalone and SAGE-324 faster and more broadly and commercialize the drugs more effectively as partners.

A few months after bringing AstraZeneca onboard as a partner, the turnaround at the Alderley Park-based firm is moving ahead, buoyed by a fresh financing.

The cholesterol lowerer Crestor, which had peak sales of over $6.60bn, helped AstraZeneca reinvigorate a flagging pipeline. Now it is deemed surplus to requirements.

The French major and Regeneron have racked up another indication for Dupixent with the blockbuster getting approval in Europe to treat children with severe eczema.

Considerable value has been assigned to the companies developing coronavirus vaccines. Multiple suppliers and a met clinical need may erode much of that value after the pandemic.

As well as highlighting Novartis's burgeoning pipeline, the Swiss major's CEO is confident that its biggest earners will continue to growth for the next five years at least.

Potentially transformative treatments for severe asthma, COPD and osteoarthritis are among some of the below-the-radar projects the Swiss major is advancing, according to Vas Narasimhan. 

Pfizer and BioNTech may be first out of the gate with robust results for a COVID-19 vaccine but amid all the excitement, Paul Hudson has issued a timely reminder that multiple vaccines will be needed to meet the huge demand.

Vifor CEO Stefan Schulze tells Scrip that an expanded deal with Korsuva developer Cara Therapeutics means the US biotech will not have to invest in a commercial organization as the Swiss firm will mobilize its well-established sales force to launch the treatment for dialysis patients with CKD-associated pruritus.

Biopharma executives discussed their strategies for treating chronic diseases during the Cell and Gene Meeting on the Mesa, including R&D and regulatory considerations.

The European Commission has extended the indications for Janssen’s Tremfya to include psoriatic arthritis, and those for BMS’s Opdivo to include gastroesophageal cancer.

Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly’s SGLT2 inhibitor Jardiance (empagliflozin) reduces cardiovascular deaths and hospitalizations in certain heart failure patients regardless of whether they have diabetes, and regulatory submissions are expected for the additional indication later this year.

MyoKardia is building up its organization to prepare for commercialization of mavacamten, a potential first-in-class agent for obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.