Each week, we highlight five things you need to know about in the life sciences industry. Here’s the latest. 1. FTC challenges biopharma merger as antitrust scrutiny grows Less than two weeks after the Federal Trade Commission announced it would be taking a more stringent look at mergers in the biopharmaceutical industry, the proposed Illumina and Grail ... READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: FTC challenges biopharma merger as antitrust scrutiny grows
Less than two weeks after the Federal Trade Commission announced it would be taking a more stringent look at mergers in the biopharmaceutical industry, the proposed Illumina and Grail merger became only the second vertical merger in 40 years (2017’s proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner) to be legally challenged by the agency. The trial is ... READ MORE >
5 things to know in life sciences: Week of March 22
In this week’s life sciences roundup: the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine has faced challenging headwinds in the past week as several European Union countries paused distribution pending additional information from the European Medicines Agency, and as the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States publicly rebuked data ... READ MORE >
5 things to know in life sciences: Week of March 15
The Federal Trade Commission’s new acting chair, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, has initiated a review of the agency's processes for approving pharma mergers. This is expected to result in a tougher road for these mergers, as we explain below. We also look at the top drugs losing their exclusivity this year, artificial intelligence-powered hearing aids and the use ... READ MORE >
An evolution of the economy: Living, and adapting, with COVID-19
Over the past year, leaders around the globe have held their breath as the pandemic unfolded and drastic measures were tested, from safety mitigation and scientific developments to unprecedented fiscal stimulus. And now, as we emerge from the cloud of 2020, it is likely the current pandemic will soon pass to become an endemic. Even with this transition, the ... READ MORE >
Understanding the rapid spread of COVID-19 variants
As of March 12, more than 341 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered globally at a remarkable pace of 8.5 million doses a day, according to Bloomberg. Nearly a third of those vaccinations have occurred in the United States, where we have already administered more than 101 million doses and are giving another 2.3 million doses a day. ... READ MORE >
5 things to know in life sciences: Week of March 8
This week we look to make sense of COVID-19 variants. We also examine what appears to be heightened scrutiny on accelerated approvals for some treatments, gaps in the understanding of racial and ethnic representation in vaccine trials, tiny cancer-fighting robots and a new contract development and manufacturing organization facility coming to Texas. Each ... READ MORE >
5 things to know in life sciences: Week of March 1
In this week’s roundup we look at new data coming out of the United Kingdom and Israel on their COVID-19 vaccination programs’ results. The U.K. reported last week promising data on the efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine after just one dose. We also highlight improvements in public perception of the pharmaceutical industry, a new executive order on ... READ MORE >
5 things to know in life sciences: Week of Feb. 22
In this week’s roundup we look at two important developments in the ongoing response to the pandemic. The first is the likelihood that Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine could be approved under an emergency use authorization (EUA) as early as this weekend. The second is a major new effort by the U.S. government to expand genomic sequencing to track new COVID-19 ... READ MORE >
5 things to know in life sciences: Week of Feb. 15
In this week’s roundup we look at promising results in a clinical trial leveraging an existing diabetes drug for the treatment of obesity, a new and less invasive treatment for sleep apnea, and a new technology in cardiac catheters. We also examine the impact of the pandemic on oncology trials and the challenges of developing new treatments for Alzheimer’s ... READ MORE >