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Baxter, 3M, Abbott near the top of Newsweeks’ most reponsible companies list

Several medtech, healthcare and life sciences companies, including big names like Abbott (NYSE:ABT), 3M (NYSE:MMM) and Baxter (NYSE:BAX), are among the 500 “most responsible,” according to Newsweek.

The outlet published its “America’s Most Responsible Companies 2022” list, marking the third installment of the compilation (in partnership with Statista), this time expanded to include 500 of the largest public corporations around. Companies were judged with an overall score out of 100 that combined environmental, social and corporate governance performance assessments.

Baxter, 3M, Abbott and BD (NYSE:BDX) were among the highest-ranking big-name medical device makers. Cancer diagnostic company Illumina was the highest-ranking company under the healthcare and life sciences umbrella, sitting in second behind HP.

In sixth sat Baxter, registering an overall score of 89.5 points, with its highest performance coming in environmental i…

Appeals court invalidates $1.2 billion fine against Gilead Sciences

Gilead logo

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit tossed a $1.2 billion fine against Gilead Sciences after invalidating portions of a Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center patent licensed to a Bristol Myers Squibb subsidiary.

The patent was the basis for the previous ruling against Foster City, Calif.–based Gilead, which related to patent infringement claims associated with Yescarta, a CAR-T immunotherapy developed by Gilead’s Kite Pharma subsidiary. The Bristol Myers Squibb unit Juno Therapeutics had developed a similar treatment.

In a legal opinion representing a unanimous three-judge decision, Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Kimberly Moore reasoned that the portions of the Memorial Kettering Cancer Center patent lacked adequate details.

In 2019, a jury concluded that Kite Pharma had infringed on the patent and awarded the Memorial Sloan Kettering…

Novartis’s Kymriah fails in study focused on aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Novartis (SWX:NOVN) has announced that the genetically modified autologous T cell immunotherapy Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) failed to meet the primary endpoint in its Phase 3 BELINDA trial. That endpoint involved event-free survival for people with aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma compared to standard of care. To qualify for the study, patients needed to have primary refractory disease or have relapsed within 12 months of receiving first-line treatment.

Two other companies, Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) and Gilead Sciences (NSDQ:GILD), recently announced successful data in similar studies involving Breyanzi and Yescarta, respectively.

Bristol Myers Squibb received FDA approval for Breyanzi as third-line therapy in February.

FDA granted accelerated approval to Yescarta for relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma in March.

The standard of care in the treatment was salvage chemotherapy. Also known as rescue therapy, salvage chemotherapy …

Gilead identifies counterfeit versions of two of its HIV drugs

Gilead Sciences (NSDQ: GILD) has announced that it has identified tampered and counterfeit versions of its HIV drugs Biktarvy and Descovy in the U.S. supply chain.

Biktarvy is a blockbuster drug cocktail, raking up $7.26 billion in sales last year. 2020 sales of Descovy were $478 million.

Foster City, Calif.–based Gilead said that unauthorized distributors have sold the drugs using genuine Gilead bottles but with a tampered counterfeit foil induction seal and drug.

The company is working to remove the counterfeit product from distribution.

“The safety of individuals taking Gilead medication is always our first priority,” said Dr. Merdad Parsey, chief medical officer and Gilead Sciences, in a statement. “We are taking aggressive action to ensure that healthcare providers and people who rely on our medicines can confidently distinguish authentic Gilead products from counterfeit drugs.”

The company also posted guidelines on its website to help…

Kite and Appia Bio announce on allogeneic cell therapy alliance

Gilead (NSDQ:GILD) subsidiary Kite will collaborate with Appia Bio (Culver City, Calif.) to develop engineered allogeneic cell therapies from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) for cancer patients.

To that end, they have entered into a collaboration and license agreement to develop HSC-derived cell therapies for hematological malignancies.

Under the agreement, Appia Bio will lead preclinical and early clinical research of two HSC-derived CAR-iNKT product candidates. Kite will provide engineered chimeric antigen receptors. Kite will provide Appia Bio with an upfront payment, an equity investment and additional milestone payments. In all, the total value of those payments could reach $875 million without including tiered royalties. Kite will develop, manufacture and commercialize the product candidates identified as part of the collaboration.

In the partnership, the two companies will use Appia Bio’s ACUA technology platform for allogeneic cell therapy. Read more

34 of the most innovative pharmaceutical products

Photo by Myriam Zilles on Unsplash

The Galien Foundation has revealed its latest nominees for the 2021 Prix Galien USA Award highlighting innovations in biotechnology, pharmaceutical agents, medical technology and digital health products. Entrants to the competition must have received FDA approval within the past five years and demonstrate exceptional therapeutic potential. The Galien Foundation does not use financial data to make its selections.

The organization will announce final winers in the competition at ceremony in New York City on October 28, 2021.

In terms of pharmaceutical agents, the organization selected the following 34 nominees:

Company Drug name

AbbVie Inc.

Rinvoq (upadacitinib)

Adlon Therapeutics L.P., a subsidiary of Purdue Pharma

Adhansia XR (methylp…

Pharma 50: Here’s how the world’s largest pharma companies are doing

The global pharmaceutical industry held up well during the pandemic, with 10 of the largest businesses only seeing a roughly –3% drop in revenue in 2020. Eight of the 10 even came out ahead.

That’s one of the big takeaways from Drug Discovery & Development’s inaugural Pharma 50, a compilation of data on the largest pharma companies in the world. (Browse data on all 50 companies here.)

Overall, the 50 largest pharma companies brought in $851 billion in sales in 2020. Pharma companies also overcame COVID-19-related clinical trial disruption and staffing hurdles, driving unprecedented R&D advances to introduce novel vaccines and therapies to battle the pandemic. The resulting shift in public perception could benefit the industry for years to come.

One of the most notable achievements involved the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, according to analyst Mani Foroohar at SVB Leerink.

Other achievements, according to Foroohar, includ…

Pharma 50: Here’s how the world’s largest pharma companies are doing

The global pharmaceutical industry held up well during the pandemic, with 10 of the largest businesses only seeing a roughly –3% drop in revenue in 2020. Eight of the 10 even came out ahead.

That’s one of the big takeaways from our sister publication Drug Discovery & Development’s inaugural Pharma 50, a compilation of data on the largest pharma companies in the world. (Browse data on all 50 companies here.)

Overall, the 50 largest pharma companies brought in $851 billion in sales in 2020. Pharma companies last year overcame clinical trial disruption and staffing hurdles to drive unprecedented R&D advances to introduce novel vaccines and therapies to battle the pandemic. The resulting shift in public perception could benefit the industry for years to come.

Get the full story on our sister site Drug Discovery & Development.

Pharma 50: Here’s how the world’s largest pharma companies are doing

The global pharmaceutical industry held up well during the pandemic, with 10 of the largest businesses only seeing a roughly –3% drop in revenue in 2020. Eight of the 10 even came out ahead.

That’s one of the big takeaways from our sister publication Drug Discovery & Development’s inaugural Pharma 50, a compilation of data on the largest pharma companies in the world. (Browse data on all 50 companies here.)

Overall, the 50 largest pharma companies brought in $851 billion in sales in 2020. Pharma companies last year overcame clinical trial disruption and staffing hurdles to drive unprecedented R&D advances to introduce novel vaccines and therapies to battle the pandemic. The resulting shift in public perception could benefit the industry for years to come.

Get the full story on our sister site Drug Discovery & Development.

Pharma 50: Here’s how the world’s largest pharma companies are doing

The global pharmaceutical industry held up well during the pandemic, with 10 of the largest businesses only seeing a roughly –3% drop in revenue in 2020. Eight of the 10 even came out ahead.

That’s one of the big takeaways from our sister publication Drug Discovery & Development’s inaugural Pharma 50, a compilation of data on the largest pharma companies in the world. (Browse data on all 50 companies here.)

Overall, the 50 largest pharma companies brought in $851 billion in sales in 2020. Pharma companies last year overcame clinical trial disruption and staffing hurdles to drive unprecedented R&D advances to introduce novel vaccines and therapies to battle the pandemic. The resulting shift in public perception could benefit the industry for years to come.

Get the full story on our sister site Drug Discovery & Development.

Roche retools COVID-19 strategy

The Swiss pharma giant Roche (OTCMKTS:RHHBY) has canceled two Phase 2 COVID-19 studies while looking to identify a new site to conduct a clinical study for the oral antiviral AT-527, which it is developing with Atea Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ:AVIR.O). The two companies were looking to launch a trial in the U.K., but falling COVID-19 cases there have complicated recruitment.

“There’s just simply not enough patients to enroll with the speed we were hoping for,” said Bill Anderson, head of Roche’s pharmaceutical division, in a conference call.

Roche and Atea hoped AT-527 would offer a more convenient alternative to intravenous treatments such as antibody cocktails or Gilead Science’s (NSDQ:GILD) remdesivir.

One of the two canceled Phase 2 studies was for the monoclonal antibody astegolimab (RG6149), which the company had licensed from Amgen (NSDQ:AMGN).

The other Phase 2 trial Roche halted related to RG7880 (efmarodocokin alfa), which the company hoped…

Study: Remdesivir supports clinical improvement in hospitalized COVID-19 patients

Remdesivir diagram

A multicenter study involving a substantial number of minorities indicated that remdesivir supported clinical improvement in the majority of patients.

The hospitalized remdesivir group had an average time to clinical improvement of five days versus seven days for those not receiving the drug. Remdesivir recipients had a 28-day mortality rate of 7.7% compared with a 14% rate for matched controls. The study authors note, however, that this finding was not statistically significant in the time-to-death analysis

Combining remdesivir with corticosteroids did not appear to provide additional benefit.

The study, which was recently published in JAMA, involved 2,483 patients in a five-hospital system in Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.

From that patient pool, 342 participants received remdesivir, with 184 of those individuals also receiving corticosteroids. More than 80.0% of th…