Vaccines
Following restricted vaccine approvals and changes to CDC immunization schedules, Merck, Pfizer, GSK and Sanofi are all suffering revenue hits to their vaccine programs.
The company reported $200 million in net losses for the third quarter, but an aggressive and highly successful cost-cutting campaign is helping to stem the downward trend.
While the company’s sales outlook was otherwise rosy, Merck took sales hits on Gardisil, Proquad, Varivax and Vaxneuvance.
Shingrix sales in the U.S. took a 15% dive in the third quarter. GSK is now the second Big Pharma to report declining vaccine sales, after Sanofi reported a similar decline last week.
The coming flu season is the clearest indication yet that biopharma’s long-standing assumptions about predictability, prevention and portfolio structure are no longer guaranteed.
Sales of Sanofi’s COVID-19 and flu vaccines fell 17% in the third quarter amid declining vaccination rates and pricing pressures in Europe.
A key question for investors going forward will be whether Moderna’s other latent virus vaccines for Epstein-Barr and shingles can succeed after the failure of the CMV program.
To tailor cancer therapies to individual patients, Moderna, BioNTech and other companies are rethinking how they optimize manufacturing schedules and resources.
Johnson & Johnson has yet to make a drug pricing deal with Trump; Novo makes more moves under new CEO; more than 1,000 laid off from CDC, though many immediately hired back; the BIOSECURE Act is back and more.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was scheduled to convene Oct. 22 to 23, but this meeting has been postponed, with no new date specified. The delay comes as the VA published new research showing that COVID-19 shots prevented hospitalizations and death.
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