- Wisconsin hospital worker arrested for spoiled vaccine doses (apnews.com)
Authorities arrested a suburban Milwaukee pharmacist Thursday suspected of deliberately ruining hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine by removing them from refrigeration for two nights...Police...said the Advocate Aurora Health pharmacist was arrested on suspicion of reckless endangerment, adulterating a prescription drug and criminal damage to property, all felonies. The pharmacist has been fired and police said in a news release that he was in jail. Police did not identify the pharmacist, saying he has not yet been formally charged...His motive remains unclear. Police said that detectives believe he knew the spoiled doses would be useless and people who received them would mistakenly think they’d been vaccinated when they hadn’t...READ MORE
- U.S. government responsible for 68% of biopharma’s nonprofit and grant funding in 2020 (bioworld.com)
The amount of money flowing into the biopharma industry via grants and collaborations with nonprofit and government entities is a 272% increase over last year, with efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic accounting for 84% of the total for 2020...BioWorld has tracked 855 bio/nonprofit deals worth $14.66 billion and 630 grants awarded to the industry and valued at $12.72 billion for a combined total this year of 1,485 and $27.4 billion. Companies developing therapeutics and vaccines for the SARS-CoV-2 virus are the recipients of about $23 billion of those funds through 628 deals (42%)...READ MORE
- US close on deal with Pfizer for millions more vaccine doses (msn.com)
The U.S. government is close to a deal to acquire tens of millions of additional doses of Pfizer's vaccine in exchange for helping the pharmaceutical giant gain better access to manufacturing supplies...the deal is under discussion and could be finalized shortly...READ MORE
- Medication Errors: 2019, The Year in Review – January to December 2019 (pharmacypracticenews.com)
- Safety Issues Related to Labeling, Packaging, and Nomenclature
- Safety Issues Associated With Order Communication and Documentation
- Problems Involving Drug Information, Patient Information, Patient Education, and Staff Education
- Safety Issues Related to Medical Devices and Equipment
- Other Discussion Items
- SMP’s Targeted Medication Safety Best Practices for Hospitals...READ MORE
- First antimicrobial drugs purchased via new ‘subscription’ payment model (pharmaceutical-journal.com)
The new model will pay pharmaceutical companies upfront for access to medicines based on their usefulness to the NHS...The...model aims to stimulate investment in the development of new antimicrobials...led by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NHS England and NHS Improvement, will pay pharmaceutical companies upfront for access to medicines based on their usefulness to the NHS...two treatments, cefiderocol (Fetcroja) manufactured by Shionogi, and ceftazidime with avibactam (Zavicefta) manufactured by Pfizer, have become the first two drugs to be selected to move to an innovative health technology evaluation process as part of the payment system...READ MORE
- Novavax starts late-stage trial of COVID-19 vaccine in United States (reuters.com)Novavax Announces Initiation of PREVENT-19 Pivotal Phase 3 Efficacy Trial of COVID-19 Vaccine in the United States and Mexico (ir.novavax.com)
Novavax Inc has begun a large late-stage study of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, the drug developer said on Monday, after delaying the trial twice due to issues in scaling up the manufacturing process...It will enroll up to 30,000 volunteers across about 115 sites in the United States and Mexico, with two-thirds of them receiving the shot 21 days apart and the rest getting placebo, the company said...READ MORE
- EMA authorizes Pfizer/Biontech vaccine as new SARS-CoV-2 variant emerges (bioworld.com)Comirnaty (BNT162b2) Vaccine (precisionvaccinations.com)
The EMA has issued a positive opinion on Pfizer Inc./Biontech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine, BNT-162b2, becoming the first regulator to recommend a full marketing authorization, rather than approval for emergency use...The vaccine, now brand named Comirnaty, still has to go through the formality of being approved by EU member state governments, but the EU health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, has said she expects roll out to start on Dec. 27...“This is the first marketing authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine in the EU. It is valid in all 27 member states at the same time,” said EMA Executive Director Emer Cooke. “There is a firm scientific foundation for roll out,” she said...READ MORE
- UK authorizes AstraZeneca, Oxford coronavirus vaccine, but questions linger (biopharmadive.com)
The U.K.'s drug regulator has authorized a coronavirus vaccine from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, the first clearance for a shot viewed as critical to global immunization efforts but whose exact effectiveness is uncertain...The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency based its decision on positive data from studies in the U.K., Brazil and South Africa, which showed the shot was able to prevent symptomatic COVID-19 in a majority of vaccinated participants and protect against severe disease. The authorization comes less than a year after a team of Oxford researchers adapted pre-existing work on different coronaviruses to develop a shot for SARS-CoV-2...READ MORE
- Ingredients, innovation and a need for speed: what’s in store for 2021 (outsourcing-pharma.com)
Three leaders from pharma ingredients and innovation firm Lonza share views on challenges and opportunities likely to face the industry in coming months...It likely is safe to say no professionals in drug development and manufacturing has a reliable crystal ball that can provide a crystal-clear picture of exactly what will happen in the coming 12 months. However, seasoned and savvy professionals can offer educated opinions, and advice on preparing for what might lie ahead...To get a clearer perspective on what 2021 might have in store for the pharma field, Outsourcing-Pharma (OSP) checked in with three Lonza executives, asking their thoughts on 2020 as well as the new year...READ MORE
- The Journalist and the Pharma Bro (elle.com)
Why did Christie Smythe upend her life and stability for Martin Shkreli, one of the least-liked men in the world?...she chucked it all...Over the course of nine months, beginning in July 2018, Smythe quit her job, moved out of the apartment, and divorced her husband. What could cause the sensible Smythe to turn her life upside down? She fell in love with a defendant whose case she not only covered, but broke the news of his arrest. It was a scoop that ignited the Internet, because her love interest, now life partner, is not just any defendant, but Martin Shkreli: the so-called “Pharma Bro” and online provocateur, who increased the price of a lifesaving drug by 5,000 percent overnight and made headlines for buying a one-off Wu-Tang Clan album for a reported $2 million. Shkreli, convicted of fraud in 2017, is now serving seven years in prison...READ MORE