Supply Chain

President-elect Joe Biden today announced that Dr. David Kessler, who led FDA through much of the 1990s, will serve as chief science officer of his administration’s COVID-19 response. Kessler’s achievements at FDA included speeding the approval of drugs to reduce the AIDS death toll. He’ll now be helping to lead efforts to speed authorization and…

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…

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) announced today that they will provide an extra 100 million doses of its Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine to EU member countries in 2021. “In partnership with the European Commission, member states and healthcare providers, we will be able to reach a total of 150 million Europeans across the continent,” Pfizer CEO Albert…

Hundreds of millions of vaccine doses will require hundreds of millions of syringes from companies such as BD. As much-hoped-for COVID-19 vaccines roll out to the public, Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) faces an arguably impressive challenge: The Franklin Lakes, N.J.–based medtech giant already has commitments to provide more than 800 million needles and syringes to deliver future COVID-19…

Temperature-controlled packaging company Pelican BioThermal announced that it has adapted some of its shipping packages to accommodate vaccines at temperatures as low as -80°C. The Plymouth, Minn.-based company has switched the materials it uses to keep the packages deep-frozen from saltwater or paraffin to dry ice, according to Adam Tetz, director of worldwide marketing for Pelican BioThermal.…

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told media outlets today that the company is negotiating a way to speed up the delivery of an additional 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the U.S. next year. Americans are expected to receive some of the first shots of the vaccine today — days after FDA granted an…

FDA has granted emergency use authorization to the monoclonal antibody LY-CoV555 (bamlanivimab) from Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) to improve the prognosis for recently diagnosed, high-risk COVID-19 patients.  But the investigational medicine must be delivered intravenously. That delivery method is a potential complication as healthcare facilities across the U.S. grapple with a surge of SARS-CoV-2 infections and dwindling ICU…

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS), the parent of the retail pharmacy chain CVS Pharmacy, Aetna and other brands, has committed to partnering with the Trump administration to administer Eli Lilly’s (NYSE:LLY) monoclonal antibody LY-CoV555 (bamlanivimab). The company will administer the intravenous therapy to high-risk patients in their homes or long-term care facilities.  In the pilot program, CVS will administer 1,000…

While vaccine hesitancy will be a barrier in battling the COVID-19 pandemic, the storage requirements for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines will invariably be another significant hurdle.  The BNT162b2 vaccine candidate from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) — with its subarctic storage requirements of -70°C — could be especially vexing. Approximately 5% of the vaccine, which Pfizer developed with partner BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX), could…

The White House Coronavirus Task Force promised a swift rollout of COVID-19 vaccines — but one of a number of takeaways from its first briefing since July. The briefing yesterday gave the task force a chance to once again urge Americans to heed COVID-19 guidance while also providing an update on vaccines and therapeutics.   The…