Business & Industry News Channel
Merck, a leading science and technology company, announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its investigational new drug application (IND) for M5049 for the treatment of patients with Covid-19 pneumonia. Merck will initiate a Phase II randomized, controlled clinical study evaluating the safety and efficacy of M5049 in this patient population. 
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX) today announced preliminary data from the most advanced of four investigational vaccine candidates from their BNT162 mRNA-based vaccine program, Project Lightspeed, against SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the current global pandemic. The BNT162 program is evaluating at least four experimental vaccines, each of which represents a unique combination of mRNA format and target antigen. 
GSK's scientific collaboration with Clover Pharmaceuticals to develop an adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine has entered into human clinical trials. Clover announced the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical study evaluating the company’s COVID-19 S-Trimer vaccine (SCB-2019) in combination with GSKs pandemic adjuvant system. 
Novartis revealed the healthcare and pharma industry has emerged as a desired career destination for tech talent during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the Powerful Pairing research report launched today.
The research - which covered 2,502 tech professionals in the US, UK, Germany, China and India, conducted between May and June 2020 - targeted respondents from a variety of sectors and organizations with the objective to study perception shifts of the industry in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines global business unit of Sanofi, and Translate Bio (NASDAQ: TBIO), a clinical-stage messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics company, have agreed to expand their existing 2018 collaboration and license agreement to develop mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases. Novartis has made the decision to stop and discontinue its sponsored HCQ clinical trial for COVID-19 due to acute enrollment challenges that have made trial completion infeasible. The recruitment challenge facing our HCQ trial has made it unlikely that the clinical team will be able to collect meaningful data in a reasonable timeframe to determine the effectiveness of HCQ in treating patients with COVID-19. Sanofi detailed plans on how the Company will make significant investments in France to increase its vaccines research and production capacities, and contribute in responding to future pandemic risks. Aligned with its corporate strategy presented last December, Sanofi will invest €610 million to create a new production site and research center in France with both dedicated to vaccines.