Dexamethasone, a cheap genetic steroid has proven to become the first life-saving drug treatment in the Covid-19 pandemic. The low-dose steroid treatment Dexamethasone is part of the world’s biggest trial testing existing treatments to see if they also work for coronavirus, and found it cut the risk of death by a third for patients on…
There are now 230,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK and 33, 164 people have died and 428 dead in the UK yesterday. Care homes in the UK account for 40 per cent of all Covid-19 deaths. UK follows the EU and US to approve Roche’s Covid-19 antibody tests. Game-changing tests are given go-ahead as…
Novartis commits to donating up to 130million doses of Hydroxychloroquine to support the global COVID-19 pandemic response. Hydroxychloroquine and a related drug Chloroquine are currently under evaluation in clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19. Novartis COVID-19 Response Fund of USD 20 million, helped to build drug discovery and development collaborations and essential medicines price…
In February Moderna Therapeutics, Cambridge-based (near Boston) biotech group, smashed a record for the fastest time between identifying a virus ( Covid-19) and creating a vaccine ready to test on humans in 42 days. Juan Andres, a former Novartis executive to help it ramp up manufacturing of its experimental drugs and vaccine at the new…
The US Scientific equipment maker, Thermo Fisher with a market capitalisation of $122bn, has agreed to buy Dutch diagnostics group Qlagen for $11.5bn in a move to extend their disease testing capabilities as the world is gripped by the Coronavirus outbreak. Qiagen, a provider for sample and Assay technologies for molecular diagnostics, applied testing, academic…
Nurofen-Dettol and Durex owner Reckitt Benckiser have a headache as Reckitt posted a £3.7 billion loss yesterday as it took a £5 billion charge on its takeover of baby formula maker Mead Johnson. Reckitt which also owns Cillit Bang acquired baby milk maker Mead Johnson in a mammoth £13 billion ($16.6 billion) deal in 2017.…
Consort Medical, medical devices makers was snapped up today by a Swedish rival Recipharm for £505m, delivering a boost to City Investors. Consort Medical whose brands include Besapk Asthma inhalers. ASIC medicine making facility and disposable syringes has eight manufacturing sites across the UK and employs over 2000 staff. The bid is a 39 per…
Walgreens Boots Alliance has held talks with a private equity group on a $70bn deal to go private. Aggressive deal making by Stefano Pessina the Italian billionaire who owns 16 per cent of the global pharmacy group has assembled a business that spans 25 countries and generates $34bn in revenues. Shares in the company rose…
Pfizer is expected to announce today that it will combine its off-patent drug business with Mylan, the generics drugmaker with a market value of $9.5bn. The US drugmaker is expected to create a new unit with larger seller of off-patent and generic medicines including Lipitor and Viagra. Mylan shareholders will hold just over 40 per…
Tests on three American blind patients – two men and a woman- who were legally blind produced exciting results according to Olav Hellebo, CEO of UK bio-tech Firm ReNeuron in Bridgend ,Wales. Before the procedure the three could read only the largest group of letter on a special eye test chart, as they had retinitis…