Brian Buntz

President-elect Joe Biden has announced a proposal for a $1.9 trillion economic rescue package that includes $415 billion to fight the pandemic, including boosting COVID-19 vaccine deployment. Of that latter total, some $20 billion would be invested in a national vaccination program to establish community vaccination centers across the country, including mobile vaccination units in…

Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, a company dedicated to developing new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), will install James Frates as chief financial officer (CFO) on Jan. 25, 2021. Frates has currently worked as the CFO of the global biopharma company Alkermes (NSDQ: ALKS) since 1998. “We are so excited for Jim to join…

With Democrats having gained control of the Senate and the presidency, some form of drug-pricing reform is likely. But with the raging COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing threats to the Affordable Care Act, Democrats are more likely to focus on those issues in the near term, according to Barrett Thornhill, a partner at the public affairs…

Catalent (NYSE:CTLT) has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase a dry-powder inhaler (DPI) capsule manufacturing and packaging facility from Acorda Therapeutics (NSDQ:ACOR). The acquisition will enable Catalent to establish a center of excellence for spray-dried dispersion for DPI capsule manufacturing. The transaction will also expand Catalent’s existing U.S.-based commercial-scale capabilities in metered-dose inhalers and nasal…

While vaccines remain the most powerful tool in achieving herd immunity for COVID-19, mass-vaccination has thus far proven more challenging than anticipated in many parts of the world. There are expected challenges, such as dealing with the subarctic storage requirements (–112º to –76º F) of the BNT162b2 vaccine from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX). But…

The pandemic has worsened the opioid crisis. In the 12-month period ending in May 2020, the U.S. had 81,000 drug overdoses, with synthetic opioids being the main driver of overdose deaths. That’s the highest number on record, according to provisional data from the CDC. And the volume of overdoses in May was 42% higher than…

AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) inadvertently discovered halving the first dose of its COVID-19 vaccine could boost its efficacy. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) are examining vaccine data to determine whether they can halve the 100-microgram dose to vaccinate twice as many people. Some data from Moderna’s clinical trial support that possibility,…

Reinach, Switzerland-based Endress+Hauser, announced a new plan to beef up support of its U.S. operations with a $4.5 million investment.    The funding will enable the company to expand its project management, application engineering, services and other offerings.  “We will have more people in field assisting our customers’ needs,” said Todd Lucey, a general manager…

The U.K. has delayed the second dose of COVID-19 vaccines to maximize the number of people who can receive the first vaccine dose.   The move to delay administering the second dose by up to 12 weeks has prompted criticism from some physicians. The British Medical Association criticized the delay as “grossly unfair.” Dr. Anthony Fauci recently said he…

India is allowing reserved emergency use of the AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) COVID-19 vaccine and another from the domestic firm Bharat Biotech.  The country is producing both vaccines internally. Serum Institute of India has a contract to manufacture the AstraZeneca vaccine and has stockpiled between 40 and 50 million doses.  Covaxin, the vaccine from Bharat Biotech, was…