Pharmaceutical News of August | PharmaSources.com: COVID-19

AstraZeneca announced the initiation of Phase III clinical trial for its adenovirus vector-based COVID-19 vaccine: AZD1222 in the U.S. on Aug. 31, which has a code of D8110C00001 and is funded by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). The rights and interests of AZD1222 in China are owned by BioKangtai.

The U.S. FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) on Aug. 27 to BinaxNOW developed by Abbott for rapid detection of COVID-19 antigen, which is highly portable (about the size of a credit card), sells for only USD5, and provides detection results within 15 minutes.

Jingxin Pharmaceutical released its 2020 semiannual report on Aug. 24, with revenue reaching RMB1.641 billion, down by 11.73% year on year, and net profits attributable to the owners of the parent company reaching RMB225 million, down by 30.95% year on year. The year-on-year decrease in revenue was mainly because, with the advancement of the centralized procurement of the second batch of pharmaceutical products organized in China, its sales revenue decreased as a result of significant decreases in the prices of related formulations and APIs; the outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic caused certain negative impacts on its resumption of work and production and conduct of the sales of some products.

CanSino, the “first COVID-19 vaccine-related stock” (688185), was officially listed on the SSE STAR Market on Aug. 13. CanSino’s issue price of RMB209.71/share is the second highest price in the history of the STAR Market. The stock price rose 124% to RMB470 after the opening of the market and eventually closed at RMB393.11, with a market capitalization of RMB97.275 billion. The rise of the stock price was because its COVID-19 vaccine candidate has been completed the phase II clinical trial and received the Military Specially-Needed Drug Approval with a valid period for one year from the Health Bureau of the Logistics Support Department of the Central Military Commission for the use within the military.

AstraZeneca announced on Aug. 6 that it signed a cooperation framework agreement with BioKangtai to exclusively license its COVID-19 vaccine: AZD1222 in the Chinese mainland market. According to the agreement, BioKangtai, as the transferee, will ensure annual production of at least 100 million doses by the end of 2020 and will expand the design capacity to at least 200 million doses per year by the end of 2021.

Roche released its 2020 H1 performance report on July 23. Its total income reached CHF29.3 billion, down by 4% year on year; wherein, the income of its pharmaceutical business reached CHF23.2 billion, down by 4% year on year. Roche was seriously affected by COVID-19 in 2020 Q2, with sales revenue experiencing negative growth for the first time, down by 4%; in particular, its sales revenue seriously declined by 15% in May.

About  the Author:    

Caicai, a Master of Pharmacy from Shanghai Jiaotong University, used to work in the Institute of Science and Technical Information. Currently as a practitioner in the drug surveillance system, she is good at interpreting industry regulations, pharmaceutical research developments, etc.

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