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Fourteen recent graduates from St. George’s University arrived in Nevada last month to start their residencies, including 11 in the Las Vegas Valley. And all but two are in family medicine or internal medicine, both areas where Nevada is in short supply of physicians...Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which “really stresses a hospital system, particularly from a manpower standpoint,” having residency training programs is particularly important, said Dr. G. Richard Olds, president of St. George’s University...One big benefit is that graduates of the international medical school...are far more likely to work in low-income, rural and majority-minority geographic areas, Olds said...They’re also more likely than U.S. medical school graduates to go into primary care, an area where there’s a significant shortage of providers nationwide. The situation is particularly bad in Nevada, which ranks 48th nationwide for the number of primary care doctors per 100,000 residents, according to a January UNR report...READ MORE

The Eastman Kodak Co. (traditionally associated with cameras, film, printers and other imaging technology) announced the launch of its new Kodak Pharmaceuticals arm, which will produce various pharmaceutical ingredients. The $765m funding is the first action occurring under the president’s executive order, which authors the International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) and Department of Defense (DoD) to collaborate on COVID-19 response...”Kodak is stepping up to help onshore pharmaceutical production and this DPA action will allow the modernized Strategic National Stockpile to have domestic resiliency. Once Kodak ramps up we will have the ability to tap into that capacity for domestic use​."...READ MORE

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine strategy includes two phases, plus a broader mandate to develop more mRNA platform vaccines...With its trials and pricing set, Pfizer has pulled back the curtain on the long-range commercial strategy for its COVID-19 vaccine. During its earnings call...execs laid out two phases, pandemic and seasonal, with some combination of the two likely to play out over the next several years...READ MORE

In a gigantic feat of scientific ambition, researchers have designed a staggering 1,200 clinical trials aimed at testing treatment and prevention strategies against Covid-19 since the start of January. But a new STAT analysis shows the effort has been marked by disorder and disorganization, with huge financial resources wasted...If the goal was to optimize the likelihood of figuring out the best treatment options, the system is off course...The findings show...that too often studies are too small to answer questions, lack real control groups, and put too much emphasis on a few potential treatments...READ MORE

Seqirus announced Thursday it has begun shipping its portfolio of seasonal influenza vaccines to customers in the U.S. for the 2020/21 influenza season. Seqirus is one of the world’s largest influenza vaccine companies and is well-positioned to supply up to 60 million doses* for the U.S. market this year, depending on demand...“Influenza vaccination is critical every year, and it is more important than ever this season as it can help reduce the risk of co-infection from seasonal influenza and COVID-19 and minimize the burden of flu on the healthcare system to preserve capacity for patients with COVID-19 and other serious disorders,” said Gregg Sylvester, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Seqirus. “Our cell-based and adjuvant vaccine technologies are designed to address influenza prevention challenges...against seasonal influenza.”...READ MORE

AstraZeneca has been granted protection from future product liability claims related to its COVID-19 vaccine hopeful by most of the countries with which it has struck supply agreements...With 25 companies testing their vaccine candidates on humans and getting ready to immunise hundred millions of people once the products are shown to work, the question of who pays for any claims for damages in case of side effects has been a tricky point in supply negotiations...“This is a unique situation where we as a company simply cannot take the risk if in ... four years the vaccine is showing side effects,” Ruud Dobber, a member of Astra’s senior executive team, told Reuters...READ MORE

In a move away from a "national strategy" in favor of localized operations, Genentech is planning to part ways with hundreds of staffers over the next few months...Genentech is cutting 474 jobs...While many of the cuts are in clinical operations...44 division managers and 32 territory managers will be affected by the layoffs. Many of the cuts take effect in mid-September, but some employees will depart in August and some in October...A spokeswoman told Fierce Pharma the company this year "launched a new customer-engagement approach that will transform the way we serve patients, physicians, providers, payors and pharmacies across the country."...READ MORE

Never before have prospective vaccines for a pathogen entered final-stage clinical trials as rapidly as candidates for Covid-19...The colossal impact of the coronavirus is motivating the speed, opening a spigot of funding and inspiring research teams around the world to join the hunt. But the astonishing pace of the progress is also a consequence of the virus itself: It is, scientifically speaking, an easier target for potential vaccines than other pathogens, and a prime candidate for cutting-edge vaccine platforms new to scientists’ toolkits...Vaccines typically take years, if not decades, to reach people; the record now is four years for the mumps vaccine. Here’s what has propelled the Covid-19 endeavor to eclipse prior efforts so far...READ MORE
A familiar family
An acute, not chronic infection
Cutting-edge approaches
Money, money, money
Regulatory nimbleness
The challenges ahead

Chinese government-linked hackers targeted biotech company Moderna Inc... earlier this year in a bid to steal valuable data...the U.S. Justice Department made public an indictment of two Chinese nationals accused of spying on the United States, including three unnamed U.S.-based targets involved in medical research to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The indictment states the Chinese hackers “conducted reconnaissance” against the computer network of a Massachusetts biotech firm known to be working on a coronavirus vaccine in January...READ MORE

Pfizer could make a 60% to 80% profit margin on its COVID-19 vaccine, one analyst estimates...Pfizer’s chief business officer John Young said the company wasn’t thinking about a return on investment for its rapidly developed COVID-19 vaccine. Instead, he said, “finding medical solutions to this crisis" was a Pfizer priority...But now that the company has moved into phase 3 trials of its BioNTech-partnered vaccine and scored a $1.95 billion supply deal with the U.S. government, Pfizer seems to be changing its tune....READ MORE