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LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — British Covid vaccine maker AstraZeneca said Thursday that net profit collapsed last year, hit by the vast takeover of US biotech firm Alexion and other charges, despite surging revenues. Profit after tax slumped to just $112 million (98 million euros) compared with $3.2 billion in 2020, the pharmaceutical company said in a statement. However, revenues including Covid vaccine sales rebounded 41 percent to $37.4 billion. The Covid jab, Vaxzevria, […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — French pharmaceutical group Sanofi posted strong 2021 sales on Friday and expects another good performance in 2022, as the popularity of its asthma therapy offset setbacks in developing a Covid vaccine. While Sanofi has yet to produce a jab against Covid, its Dupixent drug, which also treats eczema, has been a huge success, with the drug recording double-digit sales growth. The company posted overall sales of 37.8 billion euros ($43.3 billion) […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Consumer goods giant Unilever on Monday revealed ongoing interest in a consumer health care unit jointly owned with pharmaceutical groups GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer after a bid of £50 billion ($68 billion) was refused. “GSK Consumer Healthcare would be a strong strategic fit,” Unilever said in a statement as it unveiled a strategy update in the wake of the weekend’s takeover news. Unilever said it was “committed to accelerating the company’s […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) – Germany’s BioNTech and US pharma giant Pfizer, which together developed a Covid-19 vaccine in record time, said Wednesday they are working on a shingles shot using the same mRNA technology. Moderna meanwhile announced it had dosed its first volunteer for a vaccine against Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), the cause of mononucleosis. The three companies are leveraging the same mRNA technology they used to develop highly successful Covid-19 vaccines towards other diseases, in […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A US government expert panel said Tuesday it no longer recommends a daily dose of aspirin to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in people aged 60 and over. People aged 40-59 who are at a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease but have no history of it, should consult with their doctor and make an individual decision on whether to start taking the medicine. The statement was […]
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — Swiss pharma giant Roche on Monday applied to market its anti-Covid-19 cocktail in the European Union, the bloc’s medicines watchdog said, the final step before it can be released to the continent. The application to the European Medicines Agency comes just over two weeks after the World Health Organisation also recommended the treatment, which Roche co-developed with US biotech firm Regeneron. The “EMA is starting evaluating an application for marketing […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Alex Gorsky will step down as chief executive of Johnson & Johnson in January, ceding the role to longtime company executive Joaquin Duato, the health care giant announced Thursday. Gorsky, the CEO since 2012, is stepping aside “due to family health reasons,” according to a company press release, which said he will stay on as executive chairman. Gorsky oversaw development of the company’s one-shot Covid-19 vaccine. His tenure also […]
MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — US biotech company Moderna will build a plant in Canada to produce vaccines for Covid-19 and other respiratory infections, the Canadian government and the company announced Tuesday. Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne made the announcement with the head of Moderna, saying the plant would fulfill orders for its messenger RNA vaccines, with manufacturers struggling to meet soaring demand for Covid-19 shots worldwide. “The collaboration aims to provide Canadians with access to a […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche said Tuesday that Japan had become the first country to fully approve its Ronapreve antibody treatment for patients with mild to moderate Covid-19. The approval was based on phase 3 trials finding that the antibody cocktail dramatically reduced the likelihood that mild or moderate Covid patients would develop into serious illness causing hospitalization or death. Ronapreve, developed in cooperation with US biotech firm Regeneron, was approved by […]
by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Novavax has inked a deal for the first 350 million of its Covid-19 vaccine doses bound for the Covax global vaccine-sharing facility, the US biotech firm said Thursday. Novavax, which signed a memorandum of understanding in February to provide 1.1 billion doses in total, penned an advance purchase agreement with Covax for the first tranche. They will be supplied, subject to regulatory approval, from the third quarter of […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — A French court on Monday found pharma giant Servier guilty of “aggravated fraud” and “involuntary manslaughter” over a diabetes and weight loss pill blamed for hundreds of deaths in one of the country’s biggest recent health scandals. The drug Mediator was on the market for 33 years and used by about five million people before being pulled in 2009 over fears it could cause serious heart problems — more than a […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The British government said on Friday it has asked its independent medicines regulator to assess AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine as part of the formal approval process for the drug to be rolled out by the end of the year. More than 1.4 million people have died since the novel coronavirus emerged in China late last year, and three drug developers — Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca/Oxford University — are currently applying […]
