Vaccines
This week’s meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will be led by Kirk Milhoan, a physician and pastor who recently claimed that COVID-19 vaccines contained a contamination that causes cancer.
The alleged deaths were detected by the FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, reports from which “generally cannot be used to determine” causation or even contribution, according to the agency.
Amid an aggressive savings push, Moderna has cut three assets and taken on a loan to increase “flexibility.”
A BioNTech spokesperson downplayed the news, insisting that the two companies remain “close” and have a “strong collaboration.”
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.
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