June 2022
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Pfizer Inc. has pledged to provide 23 vaccines and medicines, including cancer and inflammatory disease treatments, to 45 low-income countries around the world on a non-profit basis:
American national pharmacy chain Walgreens has announced the launch of a clinical trial business, with the aim of leveraging its presence in diverse communities to increase racial and ethnic diversity in clinical trials. Some 20 percent of drugs have a variation in responses across ethnic groups, yet 75 percent of clinical trial participants are white, while only 11 percent are Hispanic and fewer than 10 percent are Black and Asian:
The UK’s Health Research Authority is calling for the closure of clinical trials that are not viable in order to free up precious NHS resources for those that can be completed. Evaluation of studies that may be ended is being undertaken by the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN): transparimed.org/single-post/dhsc-hra-clinical-trial. The NIHR notes that these activities align with its document ‘Saving and Improving Lives: the future of UK clinical research delivery’ published March 2021:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-future-of-uk-clinical-research-delivery
A new market study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc., "Contract Research Outsourcing - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics", shows the industry experiencing rapid growth to 2026 with the mounting pressure on pharma and biotech companies to lower costs and augment productivity:
Moderna Inc. is testing potential vaccines against monkeypox in pre-clinical trials as the disease spreads in the United States and Europe:
A buyer has been found for the 'world-class' pharmaceutical complex owned by Novartis in Grimsby. US-based International Process Plants has taken it on under new subsidiary Humber Industrials Ltd:
www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/news/grimsby-news/buyer-novartis-grimsby-outlines-what-7126327
A report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine mandated by Congress and sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) concludes that underrepresentation of ethnic and racial groups in US research and clinical trials compounds the disparities in health outcomes in these groups and should be corrected urgently:
The report, "Contract Research Organization (CROs) Services Market by Type (Early phase, Clinical, Lab, Consulting), Therapeutic Area (Oncology, Infectious Disease, Neurology, Immunology, Hematology, Vaccines), End User - Global Forecast to 2027" predicts the global CRO services market will grow at a CAGR of 11.0% to 2027, with the data management services segment accounting for the highest growth rate:
According to new preclinical data from the University of Oxford, AstraZeneca’s Evusheld, AZD7442, retains potent neutralising activity against Omicron BA.2, the current dominant circulating variant, and neutralises all emerging variants tested to date:
www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/results_released_from_new_study_of_astrazenecas_covid-19_antibody_1449249
Abundant SAR-CoV-2 research publications are now available to help researchers identify COVID-19 repurposing drugs; and it is possible to validate these associations from evidence extracted from clinical trials designed to study these drugs:
www.mdpi.com/1999-4923/14/3/567
Cambridge Design Partnership has conducted a study of lateral flow tests to assess why they use so much plastic and how they can be made sustainable, with results that could affect the billions of tests that will be made as a commercial product sold to the public rather than being made available via the NHS in the next couple of years:
