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Is AstraZeneca planning to peel off its China business? By CEO Pascal Soriot’s response to that question, it may only a contingency plan...A Financial Times report last month suggested that AstraZeneca has drafted plans to spin its China operations—the largest of any foreign pharma by sales—into a separately listed company to protect the group against rising geopolitical tensions...quarterly earnings press call came on Friday, Soriot took a chance to clear the air...So on this specific rumor, we’d only say that we are satisfied with the way we are structured in China today...AstraZeneca...2023 revenue guidance for China. It now expects the unit’s revenue to increase by low-to-mid single-digit percentages...AstraZeneca has seen many years of commercial success in China. Lately, though, ruthless price cuts led to a major slowdown, culminating in a sales decline in 2022...READ MORE

Moderna Inc has refused to hand over to China the core intellectual property behind the development of its COVID-19 vaccine, leading to a collapse in negotiations on its sale there...the vaccine maker is still “eager” to sell the product to China...READ MORE

Federal authorities are expanding an investigation into Chicago-based Northshore Clinical Labs following a ProPublica story that raised questions about its COVID-19 testing operations in Nevada...an investigator with the Inspector General’s Office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicated he planned to subpoena documents from Nevada health officials...“Myself and other law enforcement agencies have had a case opened regarding Northshore Clinical Lab for quite some time,” wrote Special Agent Peter Theiler, who is based in Chicago. “After reading the ProPublica article on Northshore Clinical Lab regarding Nevada patients, we are interested in obtaining records related to testing for COVID-19 for Northshore Clinical Lab rapid test results and PCR test results for Nevada.”...READ MORE

In its COVID-19 vaccine patent kerfuffle with Arbutus Biopharma and Roivant’s Genevant Sciences, mRNA hot shot Moderna aims to shield itself with its government contract...Plaintiffs Arbutus and Genevant sued Moderna back in February, seeking damages tied to six patents they claim Moderna infringed with the production and sale of its COVID-19 vaccine Spikevax...the plaintiffs should have sued the U.S. government instead, Moderna said in a filing at the U.S. District Court for Delaware. To back up its argument, Moderna cited a federal law once used to “’prevent patent infringement suits from interfering with the supply of war materials during World War 1.'”...Moderna explained that it supplied its COVID-19 vaccine to the feds as part of the nation’s emergency response to the pandemic. It's "difficult to conceive of a situation more within the heart" of the wartime law than the pandemic, the company argued...READ MORE

Travellers began streaming into mainland China by air, land and sea on Sunday, many eager for long-awaited reunions, as Beijing opened borders that have been all but shut since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic...After three years, mainland China opened sea and land crossings with Hong Kong and ended a requirement for incoming travellers to quarantine, dismantling a final pillar of a zero-COVID policy that had shielded China's people from the virus but also cut them off from the rest of the world...READ MORE

A group of 23 state attorneys general led by Florida told a federal court on Monday that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lacks the legal authority to impose a nationwide transportation mask mandate to address COVID-19...The CDC sought "an unprecedented masking mandate regulating every breath of millions of Americans," said the brief in support of the group that sued to overturn the mask mandate...The group, which included Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Texas and Virginia, urged the appeals court to reject the CDC "overreach."...READ MORE

The city of Las Vegas contracted with Northshore Clinical Labs to provide limited COVID-19 testing early this year, a city representative said this week...“This was when demand for testing was at its highest levels, and the city was trying to help meet that demand,” city representative Jace Radke said in an email. “The city has not entered into any other contracts with Northshore Clinical Labs, and is no longer affiliated with the company.”...Northshore was the target of a ProPublica investigation that revealed...the lab’s tests frequently gave inaccurate results. A test by the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory found a false-negative rate of 96 percent, meaning that Northshore’s test had missed nearly all positive cases in the sampling...READ MORE

Hearses bearing the dead lined the driveway to a designated COVID-19 crematorium in the Chinese capital on Saturday while workers at the city's dozen funeral homes were busier than normal, days after China reversed tight pandemic restrictions...In recent days in Beijing the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has hit services from catering to parcel deliveries. Funeral homes and crematoriums across the city of 22 million are also struggling to keep up with demand as more workers and drivers testing positive for coronavirus call in sick...China is yet to officially report any COVID deaths since Dec. 7 when the country abruptly ended many key tenets of its zero-COVID policy that had been championed by President Xi Jinping, following unprecedented public protests against the protocol...READ MORE

...the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took the unusual step of authorizing pharmacists to directly prescribe antiviral medication Paxlovid to patients testing positive for COVID-19...But don’t expect to get a prescription right away from your neighborhood pharmacist for the pills...Major pharmacy chains and a state regulatory agency said Friday that they’re continuing to work with the FDA on how to best implement the change, including whether any new costs will be passed on to patients. Although the details still need to be worked out, the change was applauded by the industry...“I’m elated,” said Christina Madison, an associate professor at the College of Pharmacy at Roseman University in Southern Nevada...The change eliminates a barrier to getting treatment, especially in rural areas and “medical deserts” where a pharmacy is “the only place a person can get medical information for miles,” she said...READ MORE

No one who provides a service does it for free. Professionals administer these services, and payment is expected...Have you heard about the uninsured person who walked into the pharmacy to get their second or third or fourth COVID-19 shot? The billing mechanism for these patients—the Health Resources and Services Administration—is now out of money, and yet we, the pharmacists, are expected to take care of these patients...According to the CDC website,“[The] COVID-19 vaccine is free of charge for everyone. Participating pharmacies will bill private and public insurance for the vaccine administration fee. For uninsured patients, this fee will be reimbursed through the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Provider Relief Fund.”...At least half the patients who come into the pharmacy will ask why we need their insurance card. “These shots are supposed to be free,” they say. I explain to them that it takes at least 15 minutes of our time to administer a shot, and even though the vaccine is “free”—and even the alcohol pads and syringes are “free”—there is still a cost...READ MORE