Brian Buntz

Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) posted third-quarter results that beat analysts’ consensus forecast while raising its outlook for the remainder of the year. The New York City-headquartered company announced third-quarter revenues of $10.5 billion and profits of $1.63 per share for the quarter that ended Sept. 30, 2020 . Compared with the same quarter last year, profits…

Medical supply firm McKesson (NYSE:MCK) announced in a quarterly report that it and two other drug distributors could pay as much as $21 billion in opioid lawsuit settlements over 18 years. Under the new proposal, McKessons’s share of the settlements could be $8 billion. Rivals AmerisourceBergen (NYSE:ABC) and Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) would pay the remainder…

Royalty Pharma plc (NSDQ:RPRX) will acquire residual royalty interest in Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ cystic fibrosis (CF) treatments, which the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation owns. Royalty Pharma will pay $575 million in the deal and could shell out an additional $75 million in milestone payments. The company had already owned 50% of the foundation’s royalty stream. Once a…

Mylan (NSDQ:MYL) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) recently announced that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission had signed off on the proposed merger of Mylan and Pfizer’s biopharmaceutical-focused Upjohn brand. Upjohn also includes Pfizer’s Greenstone generic-drug unit. It also owns the rights to Lipitor and Xanax. Pfizer plans to spin out Upjohn on Nov. 13. If all goes…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced it was gathering supply kits to facilitate a potential mass vaccine effort. FDA has yet to approve a vaccine for COVID-19, and at least five states are planning to require independent verification of vaccines after FDA approval. In the interim, HHS is partnering with…

The pharmaceutical industry stands at a crossroads as Election Day nears in the U.S. The election could ultimately have sweeping implications for the sector, or it could yield only modest changes. While the presidential election could have a significant influence on the pharma sector, arguably more important is who gains control of Congress. A blue sweep…

Sanofi (NSDQ:SNY) and GSK (LON: GSK), which have teamed up to produce a COVID-19 vaccine candidate, have signaled their intent to work with the legal administrator of the COVAX Facility. The two companies have vowed to produce 200 million doses of a vaccine based on the protein subunit AS03 adjuvant. Governments, businesses and health organizations…

Among the numerous logistical challenges to providing COVID-19 vaccines around the globe, temperature is receiving little attention. Relatively few logistics or healthcare organizations have freezers capable of cooling down to –80° C (–112° F). But vaccines using gene-based technology known as messenger RNA (mRNA) require such ultralow temperatures. Against that backdrop, Stirling Ultracold has announced…

Chemical company Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) recently said it expects to achieve sales growth of 5.4% in its third fiscal quarter of 2020, with biopharma and healthcare businesses driving quarterly revenues of $1.6 billion. Avantor offers a range of ultra-high-purity materials to biopharma companies. This year, the company also created a COVID-19 division to support virus detection, therapy…

Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR), the controversial data-mining company, will assist the U.S. government in tracking the administration of COVID-19 vaccines. The company is developing a tool to enhance the logistics of vaccines for the novel coronavirus. Founded in 2003, Palantir has a long history of working with the federal government. The company’s software possibly played a…