(This August 31 story is refiled to add dropped word founding to Ertl’s title in paragraph 13) By Allison Martell and Julie Steenhuysen TORONTO/CHICAGO (Reuters) – High-profile COVID-19 vaccines developed in Russia and China share a potential shortcoming: They... More »
(Reuters) – The modified common cold viruses behind high-profile COVID-19 vaccine candidates from China’s CanSino Biologics (6185.HK) and Russia’s Gamaleya Institute have been studied for decades, but are still not widely used. The following are some details o... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean prosecutors indicted Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee on charges of manipulating stock prices and breach of trust in order to cement control of the group, a prosecution official said on Tuesday. Considering the gravity of manipula... More »
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has consistently downplayed the severity of the coronavirus outbreak, said on Monday that nobody will be forced to have the vaccine against the pandemic once it is developed. The comments come after ... More »
(Reuters) – AstraZeneca Plc said on Monday it has begun enrolling adults for a U.S.-funded, 30,000-subject late-stage study of its high profile COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Trial participants will receive either two doses of the experimental vaccine, dubbed AZD... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Countries with significant active spread of coronavirus must prevent amplifying events, as opening up without the virus being under control would be a “recipe for disaster”, the World Health Organization said on Monday. WHO director-general ... More »
(Reuters) – The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. COVID-19 often undiagnosed in frontline hospital workers A high ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Exhibits showcasing humanity’s battle with infectious disease will greet visitors recently emerged from coronavirus lockdowns when London’s Science Museum re-opens its doors next week after its longest closure since World War II. “Medicine: ... More »
(Reuters) – As the world awaits a COVID-19 vaccine, the next big advance in battling the pandemic could come from a class of biotech therapies widely used against cancer and other disorders – antibodies designed specifically to attack this new virus. Developme... More »
(Reuters) – Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA.O) said on Monday Chief Executive Officer Stefano Pessina has decided to step down from the position and will assume the role of executive chairman once a replacement is appointed. Pessina, 79, was appointed as the... More »
(Reuters) – The United States might have more COVID-19 testing capacity than any other country. So why have we seen laboratories overwhelmed and many patients again waiting a week or more for results? At the heart of the crisis is a reliance by public and priv... More »
(Reuters) – Emergent BioSolutions Inc said on Monday it signed a $174 million agreement with AstraZeneca to develop and manufacture the British drugmaker’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate. AstraZeneca in June picked Emergent to help produce 300 million doses of its... More »
(Reuters) – The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Early tests of COVID-19 vaccines yield promising results R... More »
(This July 17 story corrects paragraph seven to say study was released online on June 16, not July 16) LONDON (Reuters) – British scientists analysing data from a widely-used COVID-19 symptom-tracking app have found there are six distinct types of the disease,... More »
(Reuters) – The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Full dexamethasone trial results released The full results... More »
(Reuters) – The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Lung radiation may hasten COVID-19 pneumonia recovery A lo... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian institute developing one of the country’s potential coronavirus vaccines hopes to start its final stage testing in a small section of the general public in mid-August, the RIA news agency cited the institute’s director as saying on... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – One in three South Korean patients seriously ill with COVID-19 showed an improvement in their condition after being given Gilead Sciences Inc’s antiviral remdesivir, health authorities said. More research was needed to determine if the improv... More »
(Reuters) – The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Tuberculosis vaccine may limit COVID-19 deaths A tuberculo... More »
(Reuters) – The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Coronavirus tricks the body into attacking the brain Numer... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German drugmaker Merck said on Wednesday it had agreed to supply its potential COVID-19 drug Rebif to European Union countries should orders be placed for the treatment. The comment followed a Reuters report earlier on Wednesday about a d... More »
(Reuters) – The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Study may explain severity of COVID-19 in high-risk groups... More »
LONDON/BERLIN/MILAN (Reuters) – It’s tough to do any useful work when you’re stuck at home, struggling to home-school bickering kids, let alone when you’re trying to produce a COVID-19 vaccine. British drugmaker AstraZeneca (AZN.L) had spent years preparing fo... More »
(Reuters) – The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Low oxygen levels may be due to blood cell damage Damage d... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans to release guidance on Tuesday outlining its conditions for approving a vaccine for the coronavirus, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a summary of the guidance. The agency would require drugmakers... More »
(Reuters) – The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. “Tentacles” on hijacked cells might help coronavirus sprea... More »
KINSHASA (Reuters) – The Democratic Republic of Congo has recorded up to 17 Ebola cases in a new outbreak of the deadly virus in the western province of Equateur, and 11 of those infected have died, medical authorities said on Monday. The authorities had repor... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday cleared a new version of Abbott Laboratories’ continuous glucose monitoring device, helping the company build upon the success of its fastest-growing diabetes product. FreeStyle Libre 2, which was app... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – While some potential vaccines have emerged in the global race to find a way to stop the spread of COVID-19, many scientists and researchers believe antibody based therapies hold great promise for treating people already infected with the d... More »
(Reuters) – The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Convalescent plasma disappoints in Chinese trial Infusions... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Novartis won European approval for its gene therapy Zolgensma for the hereditary disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the Swiss drugmaker said on Tuesday, adding it is in talks over price with countries in hopes of a quick launch. The Euro... More »
(Reuters) – The United States will announce on Tuesday that it has signed a $354 million contract with a company to make generic medicines and pharmaceutical ingredients in the country needed to treat COVID-19, the New York Times reported late on Monday. The m... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Statins may help protect frail older people from ... More »
(Reuters) – The following is a brief roundup of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Normal speech sprays droplets with contagious coronavirus The thou... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The following is a brief roundup of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Men’s blood contains more of enzyme that helps coronaviru... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The following is a brief roundup of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. New coronavirus antibody test highly accurate A new antib... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The following is a brief roundup of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. New coronavirus is adapting to different populations A ge... More »
(Reuters) – Vir Biotechnology Inc and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc plan to begin human testing of their COVID-19 drug candidate by the end of the year, as drugmakers across the globe scramble to find therapies for the highly-infectious virus. The are currently ... More »
(Reuters) – Moderna Inc and Swiss contract drugmaker Lonza Group AG said on Friday they would accelerate the manufacturing of the U.S. drug developer’s potential coronavirus vaccine. The announcement comes at a time when drugmakers are pausing clinical trials ... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday reported 865,585 cases of the novel coronavirus, an increase of 37,144 from its previous count, and said the number of deaths had risen by 2,437 to 48,816. The CDC reported its tal... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Face masks could help limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to researchers who studied the effect of surgical masks on the transmission of other corona and flu viruses. In the study, the use of surgical masks by sufferers sign... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – The Swiss government on Friday boosted its powers to order companies to raise production of critical medical supplies like drugs and protective gear should more be needed in the fight against coronavirus-caused COVID-19. “If the supply…canno... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Sanofi SA will be able to provide millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine for patients with the illness caused by the novel coronavirus if the old malaria drug proves successful in clinical trials, its chief executive told Reuters on Thursday... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – A team of Chinese scientists has isolated several antibodies that it says are “extremely effective” at blocking the ability of the new coronavirus to enter cells, which eventually could be helpful in treating or preventing COVID-19. There i... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Shionogi & Co (4507.T), creator of the blockbuster cholesterol treatment Crestor, said on Monday it would tie up with Ping An Insurance Group Co of China (601318.SS), selling a 2.05% voting stake for 33.53 billion yen ($311 million). ... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese biopharmaceutical firm Anges Inc said on Tuesday that it and Osaka University had completed development of a DNA vaccine against the new coronavirus and that it would begin testing it in animals soon. Shares of Anges surged as much a... More »
(Reuters) – Gilead Sciences Inc’s experimental drug remdesivir, seen as one of the more promising potential treatments for the coronavirus, on Monday received the orphan drug designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The announcement comes days a... More »
(Reuters) – Drugstore chain CVS Health Corp said on Monday it was hiring 50,000 employees across the United States to assist patients and customers with the coronavirus outbreak. The new hires would fill in roles ranging from store associates to home delivery ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday urged Congress to move quickly to pass a $1 trillion economic relief measure by early next week, saying he expects bipartisan support for the bill to get cash payments to Americans durin... More »
(Reuters) – Drugs used for treating arthritis are being tested as treatments for COVID-19, the disease caused by a new coronavirus, as researchers rush to find ways of helping patients and slowing the number of infections. Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals ... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – BioNTech struck a collaboration deal with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical over the German biotech firm’s rights in China to an experimental coronavirus vaccine, the latest gambit in a global race to halt the pandemic. Once regulators approv... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) no longer has a process for declaring a pandemic, but the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak remains an international emergency, a spokesman said on Monday. Fears of a coronavirus pandemic grew on Monday after ... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Franco-British biotech company Novacyt says it can offer a coronavirus test that is faster than rival methods by focusing on a narrow sequence of DNA coding, as it fights stiff competition to turn the outbreak into a business opportunity. In ... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Roche’s experimental drug gantenerumab failed to slow cognitive decline in people with a rare inherited form of Alzheimer’s disease, the latest setback for companies hunting for a cure for the devastating brain-wasting disease. The study foc... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – It’s 2023. Britain’s brightest and best drug researchers are packing their bags as clinical trials start to dwindle, leaving a nation renowned as a global leader in pharmaceutical development to face a future in the slow lane. This is a wors... More »
(Reuters) – AstraZeneca said on Monday it will discontinue a late-stage trial for heart disease drug Epanova to treat patients with mixed dyslipidaemia and expects a $100 million writedown to hit its core profit in the fourth quarter. The biggest British drugm... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – ObsEva struck a pact with China’s Yuyuan BioScience Technology to develop and commercialize the fertility drug nolasiban, the Swiss drugmaker said on Monday as it seeks to inject new life into a medicine that had flopped a trial. In November... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group Inc (BX.N) has secured $3.4 billion from investors for its first fund dedicated to investments in the life sciences sector, targeting $4.6 billion in total, a regulatory filing showed on Thursday. At its ta... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A new type of therapy using feces and fake rubber hands may be able to help patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) overcome their fears of touching contaminated surfaces, according to new research. “OCD can be an extremely debilit... More »
(Reuters Health) – Many people worry about inheriting health problems from their parents, but a new approach to analyzing genetic contributions to disease risk suggests that for most diseases, commercial DNA tests are not the best way to assess the odds. For t... More »
(Reuters Health) – Cancer death rates in the United States fell 2.2% from 2016 to 2017 – the largest single-year drop ever recorded – fueled in large part by progress against lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death, the American Cancer Society (ACS) rep... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Roche (ROG.S) entered into a $1.15 billion licensing agreement with Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT.O) to obtain the right to launch and commercialize Sarepta’s investigational gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) outside the United... More »
(Reuters) – Japan-based drugmaker Eisai Co’s U.S. subsidiary announced on Sunday that it had received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its insomnia treatment in adult patients. The agency approved the drug, Dayvigo, in doses of 5 mg and ... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department said a federal appeals court should reverse a lower court verdict finding Bayer AG liable in the case of a California man who blamed its Roundup weed killer for his cancer. The gov... More »
(Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline’s HIV drugs division ViiV Healthcare said on Saturday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve its long acting HIV injection. ViiV, in which Pfizer and Shionogi have small stakes, said it received a so-called c... More »
(Reuters) – Merck & Co (MRK.N) said on Friday it expects to make licensed doses of its recently approved Ebola vaccine available in the third quarter of 2020 and price the single-dose injection at the lowest possible access price for poor and middle-income cou... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it had approved Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd and AstraZeneca Plc’s drug to treat an advanced form of breast cancer, three months ahead of schedule. AstraZeneca in March signed a licensing and collaborat... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Novartis on Monday said it is jettisoning what it had hoped would be a billion-dollar-selling asthma drug, fevipiprant, from its development program after the medicine failed another set of key trials. The drug’s star fell in... More »
(Reuters) – Bristol-Myers Squibb Co on Friday said it won a $752 million jury verdict against Gilead Sciences Inc in a U.S. patent dispute relating to technology for treating cancer. A jury in Los Angeles awarded the damages after finding that Yescarta, a trea... More »
(Reuters) – Shares of Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (SRPT.O) soared 31% on Friday after U.S. regulators shocked Wall Street by approving the company’s treatment for a muscle-wasting disorder less than four months after rejecting the drug over safety concerns. The F... More »
(Reuters) – Independent advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday voted unanimously in favor of Horizon Therapeutics Plc’s experimental treatment for active thyroid eye disease, taking the drug closer towards potential approval. If approved, ... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. health regulators on Friday approved expanding the heart benefit claims Amarin Corp can make in promoting its drug Vascepa to include reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes in high-risk patients, opening a multibillion-dollar market op... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A deadly virus called Nipah carried by bats has already caused human outbreaks across South and South East Asia and has “serious epidemic potential”, global health and infectious disease specialists said on Monday. The virus, identified in 1... More »
(Reuters) – Nearly half of lymphoma patients treated with Gilead Sciences Inc’s Yescarta were alive at least three years after a one-time infusion of the CAR-T cell therapy, according to data presented on Saturday. Out of 101 patients teated with Yescarta for ... More »
(Reuters) – Bristol-Myers Squibb Co on Saturday said that an experimental cancer therapy it acquired as part of its $74 billion deal for Celgene Corp produced positive results in a clinical trial. The company said it will apply for U.S. approval for the treatm... More »
(This Dec. 5 story corrects first paragraph to say growth was slower not declined in previous years, removes reference to projected spending in eighth paragraph) (Reuters) – U.S. healthcare spending grew faster in 2018 after two slower growth years, a governme... More »
(Reuters) – Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and bluebird bio Inc said on Friday their experimental therapy for a type of multiple myeloma met the main goal in a mid-stage study. The study evaluated the efficacy and safety of the therapy, Ide-cel, in patients who had r... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will use its national drug bulk-buy scheme to lower the price of drugs currently sold at higher prices compared with other markets, it said in an official statement. The move could force international drugmakers to further cut prices ... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German biotech company Morphosys’ tafasitamab, the group’s most advanced drug which is currently being tested, has sales potential of significantly more than $1 billion a year, its finance chief said in remarks to a magazine. “Analysts es... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Novartis (NOVN.S) is betting on heart drug prospect inclisiran in a $9.7 billion takeover of The Medicines Co (MDCO.O) as it challenges cardiovascular medicines from Amgen Inc (AMGN.O), Sanofi (SASY.PA) and Regeneron Pharmace... More »
(This Nov. 23rd story corrects fiscal year of expected regulatory approval in the 10th paragraph to March-end 2021, not March-end 2020) By Rocky Swift (Reuters) – Japan’s biggest drugmaker, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, said long-term data show better outcomes... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – An additional six months of data from a late-stage trial of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co’s experimental dengue vaccine again showed it failed to protect against one of the four types of the virus in an important patient group, researchers said ... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Aquestive Therapeutics’ treatment for neurological disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Shares of the company, which developed riluzole oral film (ROF) and will market the film under... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Many patients with severe but stable heart disease who routinely undergo invasive procedures to clear and prop open clogged arteries would do as well by just taking medications and making lifestyle changes, U.S. researchers reported on Satu... More »
(The Nov 16 story corrects to clarify in second graph that patients will be infused by a healthcare provider.) By John Miller and Carl O’Donnell (Reuters) – Novartis AG on Friday won U.S. approval for its experimental sickle cell disease drug, Adakveo, making ... More »
(Reuters) – An Oklahoma judge on Friday said Johnson & Johnson must pay that state $465 million for fueling the opioid epidemic through the deceptive marketing of painkillers, down from his original award of $572 million. The decision by Cleveland County Distr... More »
(Reuters) – China-based drugmaker BeiGene Ltd on Friday priced its drug, Brukinsa, to treat a rare form of lymphoma at $12,935 for a 30-day supply. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the drug, giving a boost to the company’s strategy of... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Roche’s bid to rival Biogen and Novartis in treating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) got a lift on Monday when the Swiss drugmaker said its drug risdiplam improved motor function of patients in a key study. Roche, which plans to seek approval ... More »
(Reuters) – One new case of measles was reported this weekend in the United States, with the country suffering its worst outbreak of the highly contagious and sometimes deadly disease in close-to three decades. The measles case was confirmed on Saturday in an ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China has granted conditional approval to its first self-developed treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, a move that may point to revived opportunities in a therapeutic area where drugmakers have burned billions of dollars without yielding a v... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday downplayed the risk caused by contamination of the already recalled popular heartburn drug Zantac, and said its tests suggest it does not cause carcinogens to form after ingestion by patients... More »
(Reuters) – A multistate outbreak of salmonella linked to ground beef has caused one death in California and eight hospitalizations, U.S. health officials said on Friday. A total of 10 people in six U.S. states were infected with a strain of the bacteria calle... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump plans to nominate Dr. Stephen Hahn, chief medical executive of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, to lead the Food and Drug Administration, the White House said on Friday. If confirmed, Hahn, a radiation ... More »
(Reuters) – AstraZeneca’s diabetes drug Farxiga has been approved for use in the United States as a treatment to reduce the chances of hospitalisation for heart failure in adults with type-2 diabetes and other cardiovascular risks, the British drugmaker said o... More »
CLEVELAND (Reuters) – A landmark trial over the U.S. opioid epidemic is on track to begin on Monday after drug companies and local governments failed to agree on a settlement on Friday that had been expected to be valued at around $50 billion. Top executives o... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc’s treatment for a second rare blood disorder, the company said. The treatment, Ultomiris, has already been approved in the United States, Japan and the European Un... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sanofi SA said on Friday it would recall popular heartburn medicine Zantac in the United States and Canada, after the medicines were linked with a probable cancer-causing impurity. The French drugmaker said it was working with health autho... More »
(Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson said on Friday its investigation into asbestos contamination of its baby powder could take 30 days or more, after announcing it planned to recall about 33,000 bottles of the product in the United States. The company said it had re... More »
(Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson said on Friday it is recalling around 33,000 bottles of baby powder in the United States after U.S. health regulators found trace amounts of asbestos in samples taken from a bottle purchased online. J&J shares fell more than 6% to... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists who resurrected a 50,000-year-old gene sequence have analyzed it to figure out how the world’s deadliest malaria parasite jumped from gorillas to humans – giving insight into the origins of one of human history’s biggest killers. ... More »
