Pharmaceutical industry leaders are increasingly focused on infectious diseases amid the COVID-19 pandemic and growing concern over treatment-resistant superbugs. In July, a group of drugmakers including Pfizer announced they raised almost $1 billion for a partnership promising to deliver two to four new antibiotics by 2030.
Apart from vaccines, Pfizer’s anti-infective pipeline was thin before the Amplyx acquisition, with a treatment for COVID-19 in Phase 1 studies and an antibiotic in Phase 3. But the company’s head of hospital products, Angela Lukin, said Wednesday that Pfizer is “deeply committed” to its infectious disease program.
Fosmanogepix could prove to be a weapon against fungal infections because of its mechanism of action, Pfizer said. The Food and Drug Administration hasn’t approved a new class of antifungal therapies in almost 20 years. Researchers are currently studying both oral and intravenous forms of the drug, which in theory would help patients transition from the hospital to home. READ MORE
By Kristin Jensen
Source: biopharmadive.com
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) has established a partnership with Novo Nordisk Pharma Gulf focusing on the creation of a national scientific guide for obesity management and weight control. The collaboration also aims to enhance public awareness of cardiovascular diseases and their complications.
Pharma giant Eli Lilly is teaming up with Haya Therapeutics in a $1bn deal to find multiple regulatory-genome-derived RNA-based drug targets, as it eyes up new targets in obesity. Under the deal, the companies will use Haya’s proprietary regulatory genome discovery platform to identify and validate long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) targets for developing potential treatments for obesity and related metabolic disorders.
The sale includes custom formulation and contract manufacturing capabilities for the nutrition market from the production facilities in New Jersey and Utah in the United States, and Tamaulipas, Mexico. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
