BUSINESS
Sun Pharma joins biosimilars race, to target assets with patent expiries in 7-10 years
Company chief Dilip Shanghvi, known for his midas touch in the pharma industry, has for years stayed away from biosimilars but now aims to spend between 8-9 percent of turnover on R&D.
BUSINESS
COVID-19 vaccine | UNICEF signs supply agreement with Russian Direct Investment Fund for Sputnik V
Procurement by UNICEF under this agreement is conditional on the product achieving an Emergency Use Listing from WHO, to confirm the quality, safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
BUSINESS
Bharat Biotech enters MoU with GCVC to produce Covaxin drug substance
If everything goes as per the schedule, the drug substance would be available from August 2021 which will be supplied back to Bharat Biotech do do fill and finish of the vaccine. Hester will be investing about Rs 40 crores on this project.
BUSINESS
Zydus Cadila to seek emergency use approval for its COVID-19 vaccine in next 2 weeks
"We have capacity to produce 1 crore doses (10 million) per month. With partnerships with other manufacturers and debottlenecking and improving on yields at our own plant, we will be able to expand capacity to 2.5-3 crore (25-30 million doses) next 4-6 months," Sharvil Patel, Managing Director, Cadila Healthcare said.
BUSINESS
Strides Pharma says biotech associate Stelis in talks with global vaccine cos for manufacturing deal
The company declined to name the vaccine developer, but said it is accelerating the vaccine block infrastructure with ability to cater to multiple vaccine types including viral vector, protein subunit, RNA and DNA.
BUSINESS
Government says working with Pfizer for 'earliest possible import' of COVID vaccine
Buying vaccines internationally is not similar to buying off-the- shelf items. Vaccines are in a limited supply and companies have their own priorities, game plans and compulsions, the government has said.
BUSINESS
Lupin gets $50 million from Boehringer Ingelheim as 'milestone payment' for anti-cancer drug
Lupin and Boehringer Ingelheim inked a licensing, development and commercialisation agreement in 2019 for the Indain company's novel oncology compound for difficult-to-treat cancers.
BUSINESS
Bharat Biotech submits fresh request before Brazilian regulator for Covaxin GMP certificate
Brazilian regulator Anvisa had in March denied a certificate for good manufacturing practices to Bharat Biotech citing certain violations of GMP at Bharat Biotech facility. Anvisa’s clearance is a necessary step for the country’s process of authorising this vaccine for emergency use.
BUSINESS
Zydus Cadila seeks permission from DCGI to test its COVID-19 antibody cocktail on humans
Zydus said the monoclonal antibody cocktail ZRC-3308 has been found to be safe and well tolerated in animal toxicology studies and has demonstrated the ability to neutralise SARS-CoV-2 both in vitro and in animal studies.
BUSINESS
GSK says exploring all options to make COVID-19 antibody drug Sotrovimab available in India quickly
Treatment with Sotrovimab resulted in an 85 percent reduction in the risk of hospitalisation or death in high-risk adult COVID-19 outpatients compared to placebo, based on interim results from Phase 3 COMET-ICE trial.
BUSINESS
Samsung to supply one million LDS syringes to help cut COVID-19 vaccine wastage
The technology behind LDS syringes demonstrated up to 20 percent greater efficiency. If existing syringes were to deliver one million doses, LDS syringes could deliver 1.2 million doses with the same amount of vaccine, the company said.
BUSINESS
Alkem Labs sees huge sales momentum of anti-infectives in Q1FY22
Secondary infections due to bacteria and fungus have gained traction pushing up sales; healthy momentum in chronic therapies and increased usage of vitamins, nutrients and minerals act as growth triggers
BUSINESS
Zydus Cadila enters pact with Taiwanese drug maker TLC to distribute Amphotericin B injection in India
Under the terms of the agreement, TLC will manufacture and supply AmphoTLC on a non-exclusive basis to Zydus, and Zydus will commercialize the antifungal drug in India.
BUSINESS
Pfizer says hasn't authorised anyone to import, distribute vaccine in India
Pfizer tells Moneycontrol it is supplying vaccines only to national governments. The response comes a day after the Maharashtra government said it received bids from intermediaries that claimed to have tie-ups with Pfizer and other vaccine makers.
BUSINESS
Bharat Biotech says it expects Covaxin WHO emergency use listing in July-September
The vaccine maker also said that it is in the process of seeking regulatory approvals for Covaxin in more than 60 countries including US, Brazil, Hungary, among others.
INDIA
COVID-19: As vaccine shortage bites, Centre unlikely to take over procurement completely
With their procurement tenders getting tepid response from global pharma majors, more states now want the Centre to once again take over as the sole procurer of vaccines. The Centre is unlikely to do so even as a supply-side shortage is expected, at least for the next three months
BUSINESS
Bharat Biotech to expedite Covaxin WHO emergency listing with govt backing
Vaccine meets criteria laid out by the World Health Organization for issuing emergency use listing, and approval is expected in the second half of 2021; Company submitted EOI in April
BUSINESS
COVID-19 treatment: Roche, Cipla launch antibody cocktail Casirivimab and Imdevimab in India, costs Rs 59,750
The price for each patient dose [a combined dose of 1200 mg (600 mg of Casirivimab and 600 mg of Imdevimab) will be Rs 59,750 inclusive of all taxes.
BUSINESS
Govt to import 6.8 lakh vials of Amphotericin-B injections in May, June; domestic production ramped up to 2.6 lakh vials
The government said in May 2021, 3,63,000 vials of Amphotericin-B will be imported, thereby resulting in total availability in the country inclusive of the domestic production of 5,26,752 vials.
BUSINESS
Sun Pharma appoints Pawan Goenka, Rama Bijapurkar as additional independent directors
The board of directors of Sun Pharma approved the appointment of Goenka and Bijapurkar as additional independent directors on the board of the company, with effect from May 21, 2021, to hold office up to the ensuing 29th annual general meeting of the company, Sun Pharma said in a regulatory filing.
BUSINESS
Five pharma cos get permission to produce antifungal drug Amphotericin B liposomal injection
The five companies that got permission to manufacture are Natco Pharma, Gufic Biosciences, Alembic Pharmaceuticals, Emcure Pharmaceuticals and Lyca Pharmaceuticals.
BUSINESS
Chemists' body threatens to join lockdown, if its members are not vaccinated on priority
AIOCD said that since last year March 2020 till date, more than 650 Chemists and Pharmacists lost their lives due to COVID-19 infections.
INDIA
MBBS students, fresh graduates fill gaps in COVID wards, but there are challenges
Hospitals are deploying medicine students and freshly graduated doctors for COVID care, but many complain of long hours and delayed salaries at government facilities, while senior physicians get the additional burden of training raw talent.
BUSINESS
Optimus Pharma gets DCGI nod to conduct Phase-3 trial of COVID-19 antiviral drug Molnupiravir
Optimus Pharma has internally developed the active pharmaceutical ingredient and the formulations for the product it had filed for clinical trials with the DCGI.
