Schott recently announced that it has completed the next expansion stage at its pharmaceutical glass tubing site in Jinyun, China. The company completed construction at the site in just 15 months despite the COVID-19 pandemic, with production starting in November 2020. The plant is meant to create a solid production base for high-quality borosilicate glass…
Cardinal Health expands pharmaceutical distribution contracts with CVS Health
Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) announced that it extended agreements with CVS Health over pharmaceutical distribution. The agreements for the distribution of pharmaceuticals to retail pharmacies and distribution centers run through June 30, 2027, according to a news release. “We value our long-standing partnership with CVS Health, and we are honored to continue our important work together…
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…
Cardinal Health stock down after Q4 earnings disappoint The Street
Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings today that were only two-thirds of what The Street expected. The Dublin, Ohio–based health care services company’s stock was down more than –13% to $51.04 apiece in morning trading. Our sister site MassDevice‘s MedTech 100 Index, which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies, was…
FDA signs of on extended shelf life for J&J vaccine
FDA has agreed to extend the shelf life of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 to six months. The previous shelf life was four and a half months. The regulatory agency based its decision on data from ongoing studies involving vaccine doses stored at the previously indicated storage temperature of 2–8°C (35.6–46.4°F). There is currently a…
Pfizer-BioNTech to provide U.S. with another 200M shots for kids, boosters
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…
Biovac to make and distribute Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Africa
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) today announced an agreement with Biovac to manufacture the companies’ COVID-19 vaccine for distribution in Africa. Cape Town, South Africa-based Biovac will perform manufacturing and distribution activities within Pfizer and BioNTech’s global COVID-19 vaccine supply chain and manufacturing network to aid in distribution within the African Union, according to a…
IMF approves $650B to help countries pay for COVID-19 vaccines
The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved a $650 billion allocation for COVID-19 vaccines. IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva issued a statement today confirming that the executive board concurred in her proposal for a new general Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocation of $650 billion — the largest allocation in the IMF’s…
White House to allocate 55M COVID-19 vaccine doses for global distribution
The Biden-Harris administration today announced a global distribution list for 55 million doses of America’s COVID-19 vaccine supply. Biden pledged to allocate 80 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine supply belonging to the U.S. by the end of June to aid the global fight against the pandemic. Earlier this month, the administration announced the plan…
How silica can support cold chain logistics
In the early days of the pandemic, the subarctic storage requirements for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines sparked renewed interest in the cold chain. One potentially overlooked element of the cold chain is silica, according to the specialty chemicals company Evonik. The company states that its Aerosil fumed silica supports passively cold transport units using cool packs…