Chris Newmarker

Merck (NYSE: MRK) posted second-quarter results today that missed the consensus forecast on Wall Street, though the company expects up to 14% sales growth this year. The Kenilworth, N.J.–based pharmaceutical giant reported profits of $1.213 billion, or 48¢, off $11.402 billion in sales, nearly halving its bottom line while boosting sales 19% from Q2 2020.…

Miki Pulley (Plymouth, Minn.) has new magnetic couplings that “mechanically isolate” the shafts and motor to provide clean operation in mixing systems, including in pharmaceutical and laboratory operations. The mechanically isolated magnetic coupling transmits torque through the air through both input and output hubs of the coupling. The couplings contain rare-earth neodymium magnets, which create…

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) announced today that the U.S. government has purchased another 200 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine. Media outlets including CNN and the Financial Times cited a Biden administration official saying the additional doses are needed to vaccinate children under 12, pending FDA authorization, plus the potential need for additional booster…

Pharma industry contract manufacturer Exelead recently announced that it has delivered its first precursor batch of Prizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, produced at its recently expanded facility in Indianapolis. Exelead plans to add 50 jobs to help it meet COVID-19 vaccine demand. “We are extremely proud to be part of the manufacture of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine,…

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…

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced this afternoon that the Biden administration supports waiving IP protections for COVID-19 vaccines. “This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures,” Tai said in the statement. Tai said the U.S. will actively participate in World Trade Organization text-based negotiations…

A combination of digital tools, improved production equipment, and advanced instrumentation helped COVID-19 vaccines to roll out in record time. Ben Arriola and Zach Blum, Emerson There is little doubt that researchers will study the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects from countless angles in the decades to come. Few events in modern times have had…

Emergent BioSolutions was not prepared to take on the mammoth task of churning out millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to support U.S. efforts to end the pandemic, according to a report published today in The New York Times. Emergent was ill-equipped despite a $163 million federal contract to prepare the facility for high-volume production, according…

Sanofi announced today that it will spend €600 million ($685 million) on a new plant in Toronto to produce its differentiated influenza vaccines. The Paris-based pharma giant’s Fluzone high-dose quadrivalent influenza vaccine has four times more antigen than a standard-dose vaccine. The vaccine’s creators specifically designed it to provide superior protection against influenza for older…

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT)  to make 220 million COVID-19 vaccine doses available to the 55 African Union member countries. AVAT also has the potential to order an additional 180 million doses to bring the total to 440 million through…