Firm’s recent success could have been very different had it been bought out by Pfizer in 2014

It’s perhaps not surprising that the worth of healthcare companies should emerge during a global pandemic, but we should offer thanks for the UK’s big pharma twins – AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline.

The former, with its share price at all-time high, is now jostling with Shell and Unilever for the title of biggest company in the FTSE 100 index. Successful research bets, especially on cancer drugs, have transformed Astra.

With substandard medicines already in wide circulation, fears are growing that coronavirus could create a lethal ‘parallel crisis’

When Joana Opoku-Darko’s daughter Anna was 18 months old, she came down with malaria, a disease common in Ghana and especially deadly for children.

She bought medication from a pharmacy in Ghana’s capital, Accra; when Anna’s fever didn’t subside she took her to a hospital, where they ran some tests.

The current focus on curbing Covid-19 spread means there is less focus on routine market surveillance

Related: Fight the fakes: how to beat the $200bn medicine counterfeiters | Helen Lock

Trial of remdesivir shows fewer deaths and shorter hospital stays

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The first drug against Covid-19 to show promise in trials, reducing the time seriously ill people take to recover in hospital, is unlikely to be available widely in the UK soon, it has emerged.

Forty-six people in the UK have received remdesivir as part of the European arm of an international trial. Researchers would like to have given the drug to more patients but did not have the supplies.

Related: Coronavirus: what do scientists know about Covid-19 so far?

The European Medicines Agency’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) has confirmed that the risks from using Picato are too high to end its suspension.

Italy has outlined its plans to ease the lockdown restrictions that were implemented across the country 7 weeks ago to combat the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

12 children have fallen ill across the UK with a new and potentially fatal combination of symptoms linked to COVID-19.

The South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety have approved a local trial to evaluate nafamostat’s effectiveness in COVID-19 patients.

NICE has recommended Janssen’s Stelara (ustekinumab) for the treatment of moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC), a move which rows back on the Institute’s decision to reject the drug last year.

Hydroxychloroquine continues to feature in coronavirus news. Rick Bright, the Director of BARDA, alleges he was pushed out of his position due to his pushback to the administration focusing on the use of hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients. This came after the National Institutes of Health said coronavirus patients should not take the drug due to potential “toxicities.”

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) wrote a letter to Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey urging the wider use of hydroxychloroquine, based on data they have collected.

Research into coronavirus cases in Shenzhen, China found that men were 2.5 times as likely to exhibit severe symptoms.

Nearly half of US states will have their ‘stay-at-home’ orders expire this week, paving the way for much of the US to relax its lockdowns.

A US federal judge has ruled that generic versions of the cancer treatment Bendeka infringe on four separate patents, and has delayed them from launching until 2031.

The search for a COVID-19 treatment has ramped up this week, with two new studies detailing the efficacy of Gilead’s antiviral therapy remdesivir in the treatment of patients hospitalised with coronavirus, while researchers in America have been studying famotidine, the active ingredient in Pepcid, as a potential drug to help alleviate symptoms of the virus.

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has given its recommendation for the approval of Kalydeco for the treatment of children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis in a new indication, Vertex has revealed.

The coronavirus pandemic is likely to last as long as two years and will not be properly controlled until two-thirds of the world’s populations have become immune.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that there is evidence the COVID-19 coronavirus was created in a lab, despite US intelligence officials stating it probably occurred naturally.

British scientists are testing an experimental drug to help some of society’s most vulnerable fight off the COVID-19 coronavirus.

"Every professional faces challenges. As a woman in industry, particularly in leadership, it adds another dimension to those challenges in how you present yourself."

Sanofi and Regeneron’s have lifted the lid on new topline data on their PD-1 inhibitor Libtayo (cemiplimab) in patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma (BCC), the most common skin cancer in the world, with around two million new cases diagnosed each year in the US alone.

The NHS’s coronavirus contract tracing app has been published to Apple and Google’s app stores with council staff and healthcare workers being invited to download it on the Isle of Wight today.

Researchers studying malaria in Kenya have discovered a microbe that blocks transmission of malaria from mosquitoes which could pave the way to eradicating the disease.

Vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 continue to dominate the news, as two studies reveal "positive" data for Gilead's remdesivir in hospitalised coronavirus patients while Lonza and Moderna have entered an agreement to mass produce a vaccine.

South Korea says that remdesivir, traditionally used in treating Ebola, may not be effective enough in treating COVID-19 patients.

Two studies from the UK and US have identified hundreds of mutations in COVID-19, which could cause problems for the development of a vaccine.

Britain has become the first European nation to pass 30,000 deaths from the coronavirus, putting it only behind the US as the worst hit country in the world in terms of fatalities.

A recent report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has shown that black people in Britain are four times more likely to die from the COVID-19 coronavirus than white Britons.

NICE has revealed that it has recommended the NHS use of Roche’s Kadcyla (trastuzumab emtansine) for HER2+ breast cancer in patients who have residual invasive disease in the breast or lymph nodes after receiving neoadjuvant treatment including a HER2-targeted agent.

AZ has pledged to make the vaccine at cost for the duration of the pandemic

Drug could be ready for clinical trials before the end of the year

Results could unlock another big market for the company’s star drug

US regulator satisfied that antitrust concerns are remediated

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a science-based regulatory agency working to protect the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; and by ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a science-based regulatory agency working to protect the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; and by ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a science-based regulatory agency working to protect the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; and by ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a science-based regulatory agency working to protect the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; and by ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a science-based regulatory agency working to protect the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; and by ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.

This photo is free of all copyright restrictions and available for use and redistribution without permission. Credit to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is appreciated but not required.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a science-based regulatory agency working to protect the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; and by ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.

This photo is free of all copyright restrictions and available for use and redistribution without permission. Credit to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is appreciated but not required.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a science-based regulatory agency working to protect the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; and by ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.

This photo is free of all copyright restrictions and available for use and redistribution without permission. Credit to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is appreciated but not required.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted a photo:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a science-based regulatory agency working to protect the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; and by ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a science-based regulatory agency working to protect the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; and by ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.

This photo is free of all copyright restrictions and available for use and redistribution without permission. Credit to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is appreciated but not required.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a science-based regulatory agency working to protect the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; and by ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.

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This product is promoted with unapproved claims to prevent, treat, mitigate, or cure COVID-19. FDA warns consumers to avoid unproven and potentially unsafe products. See the Warning Letter for more information:

www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-crimin...

More information is available at www.fda.gov/consumers/health-fraud-scams/fraudulent-coron...

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