- With less demand for surgical relief during pandemic, Sun cuts poppy production in Tasmania (fiercepharma.com)
For many, the sedative power of poppies was introduced by Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, galloping through flowers before falling fast asleep...Those blooms now provide raw materials for opioid painkillers used by the millions worldwide. But like the Wicked Witch of the West, who cast that poppy spell on Dorothy, the coronavirus pandemic has put a sleeper hold on the production of poppies for pharmaceutical use...The global demand for opium-based products plummeted last year as COVID forced the cancellation of most elective surgeries, and now, that diminished need for surgical pain relief products has forced Sun Pharma of India to reduce its number of contracted poppy growers in Tasmania and to eliminate two of its field officers...READ MORE
- As blood clot concerns mounted, J&J reached out to rival COVID-19 vaccine makers to form alliance: WSJ (fiercepharma.com)
Johnson & Johnson reached out to vaccine rivals—including AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer—last week, hoping to join forces to study cases of rare and severe blood clots cropping up in some vaccinated people...The goal: to forge an alliance that would communicate the vaccines' benefits and risks to allay fears among the public...Regulators were already investigating a small number of cases possibly linked to AstraZeneca's vaccine...the FDA and its European counterparts said they were examining four cases in people dosed with the J&J shot...READ MORE
- Clinical trial completion rates decline during COVID-19 pandemic (worldpharmanews.com)
Social distancing and lockdowns may have reduced the spread of COVID-19, but researchers from Penn State College of Medicine also report those actions may have affected clinical researchers' ability to finish trials. Study completion rates dropped worldwide between 13% and 23%..."The pandemic has made it more difficult for researchers to recruit and follow up on patients in clinical trials," said Hawila, a research assistant from the Department of Public Health Sciences. "This analysis revealed that the impact was substantial -- particularly for trials funded by government, academic or medical entities."...READ MORE
- A third of COVID survivors suffer neurological or mental disorders: study (reuters.com)
One in three COVID-19 survivors in a study of more than 230,000 mostly American patients were diagnosed with a brain or psychiatric disorder within six months, suggesting the pandemic could lead to a wave of mental and neurological problems...Researchers who conducted the analysis said it was not clear how the virus was linked to psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression, but that these were the most common diagnoses...“Although the individual risks for most disorders are small, the effect across the whole population may be substantial,”...READ MORE
- More therapeutics but no surge in vaccine for Michigan, Biden administration says (reuters.com)Michigan Governor Says COVID-19 Infections Could Be Dropping (usnews.com)
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer
The White House said on Monday it was prepared to send additional therapeutic treatments to the state of Michigan, which is experiencing a worrying number of COVID-19 cases, but declined to promise more vaccine as the state has sought...White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt told reporters the U.S. government would work to ensure that states such as Michigan were ordering the full amount of vaccine that was available to them but said that shifting distribution was not in line with the administration’s public health strategy...READ MORE
- Pfizer CEO says third Covid vaccine dose likely needed within 12 months (cnbc.com)Moderna watches for 'waning immunity' as new data show durable vaccine protection (biopharmadive.com)
CEO Albert Bourla, Pfizer
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said people will "likely" need a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine within 12 months of getting fully vaccinated..Bourla said it's possible people will need to get vaccinated against the coronavirus annually..."A likely scenario is that there will be likely a need for a third dose, somewhere between six and 12 months and then from there, there will be an annual revaccination, but all of that needs to be confirmed. And again, the variants will play a key role,"...READ MORE
- CEOs of COVID-19 Vaccine Makers See Boost in Salaries (biospace.com)
The global pandemic played a key role in an economic downturn with the lockdowns and work interruptions. Despite those woes, the heads of some biopharmaceutical companies developing vaccines that are playing a key role in the battle against COVID-19 saw boosts in their annual compensation...READ MORE
- Albert Bourla, Pfizer $21 million
- Ugur Sahin, BioNTech $7 million
- Stéphane Bancel, Moderna $12 million
- Alex Gorsky, Johnson & Johnson $25 million
- Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca $21 million
- How specialty prescription apps are expanding into other services (healthcareitnews.com)
Some companies are betting on telehealth's "gold rush," but virtual care may run into limiting factors...It's become somewhat common in the last year to see news about prescription delivery apps expanding, either to offer more kinds of services or to offer telehealth more generally...Part of this activity is in response to customer demand: Companies say users are increasingly accustomed to a one-stop-shop experience, especially online, and they're starting to expect similar seamlessness from health-and-wellness tools...Another part, of course, stems from the spike in telehealth interest triggered by the pandemic...READ MORE
- CDC, FDA Recommend Pausing J&J COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Over Blood Clots (biospace.com)J&J says delaying rollout of COVID-19 vaccine in Europe (reuters.com)U.S. FDA to scrutinize vaccine design behind COVID-19 shots linked to blood clots (reuters.com)
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have identified six cases in the U.S. of a “rare and severe” type of blood clot, which seems to be linked to the COVID-19 vaccine by Johnson & Johnson...That is six cases out of more than 6.8 million doses that have been given in the U.S...The blood clots are cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, which were observed in combination with low levels of blood platelets. All cases were in women between 18 and 48 years of age. The symptoms occurred six to 13 days after vaccination...READ MORE
- Pfizer and BioNTech request regulatory agencies expand emergency use of their COVID-19 vaccine to adolescents (worldpharmanews.com)
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE...requested amendments to the U.S. Emergency Use Authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (BNT162b2) to expand the use in adolescents 12 to 15 years of age. The companies plan to request similar rulings by other regulatory authorities worldwide in coming days. These requests are based on data from the pivotal Phase 3 trial in adolescents 12 to 15 years of age with or without prior evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, which demonstrated 100 percent efficacy and robust antibody response after vaccination with the COVID-19 Vaccine...READ MORE