Exclusive: St Vincent’s in Sydney is the only confirmed location so far, as NSW Health negotiates with US pharmaceutical giant Gilead

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The US pharmaceutical company Gilead is finalising the location of five hospitals in Australia to receive the highly sought-after experimental coronavirus drug remdesivir.

The only confirmed location is St Vincent’s hospital in Sydney, a major tertiary hospital and the centre of many of the New South Wales outbreak areas. A NSW Health spokeswoman confirmed the health department “has been engaging with Gilead on gaining access to the drug for Covid-19 patients”.

Related: Remdesivir: the antiviral drug is being touted as a possible coronavirus treatment – but will it work?

The partnership between AstraZeneca and the Jenner Institute should jolt our industry and banks

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There was some good news last week. Oxford University’s Jenner Institute announced it was teaming up with AstraZeneca to take a promising prototype of coronavirus vaccine into volume production by the autumn. Of course there are caveats – the institute’s confidence in its vaccine may not be validated by the trials that began last week.

Still it was heartening, after so much tragic incompetence, that a British university and a British company could forge a relationship of such potential national importance.

The piping through which emergency credit must flow is atrophied and weak

The FDA has released a safety communication reiterating the need for doctors to closely monitor COVID-19 patients who are treated with either hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine.

English excess deaths from the coronavirus are comparable to the worst hit countries in Europe, according to a Sky News analysis.

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.

Novartis has revealed that the European Commission has moved to approve Cosentyx (secukinumab) for the treatment of active non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA) in adult patients.

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 “landmark” partnership has been struck between AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford in the ongoing battle against COVID-19, with the former agreeing to aid in the development and large-scale manufacture of the latter’s potential recombinant adenovirus vaccine for the prevention of novel coronavirus infection.

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.

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

Alexion has announced it is to acquire Boston-based blood disorder specialist Portola Pharmaceuticals in a transaction to the value of $1.41 billion in cash.

The FDA has moved to approve an oral tablet formulation of AstraZeneca’s Farxiga (dapagliflozin) to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalisation in adult patients with New York Heart Association’s functional class II-IV heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.

The FDA has awarded marketing authorisation to Novartis for the Oral MET inhibitor Tabrecta for the first-line treatment of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer in patients whose tumors have a mutation that leads to MET exon 14 skipping (METex14), regardless of whether they have previously received any type of treatment.

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

UK-based Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals has ended a trial of INOmax (nitric oxide) gas early due to positive…

Shares of Danish allergy immunotherapy specialist ALK Abello were up almost 10% at 1,788.00 Danish kroner…

Following a couple of active M&A years, USA-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals has now reached a definitive…

Farxiga (dapagliflozin) has been approved in the US to reduce the risk of cardiovascular (CV) death and…

US drugmaker Alexion Pharmaceuticals fared better in its revenue and adjusted earnings figures in the…

Eye health specialist Bausch + Lomb, part Bausch Health Companies, has entered into an exclusive licensing…

Canada-based Bausch Health Companies, along with its wholly-owned subsidiary, Salix Pharmaceuticals and…

Shares of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories rose more than 2% to 3,936.35 rupees, after the Indian drugmaker…

Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries today reported results for the quarter ended March 31, 2020,…

US pharma major Bristol-Myers Squibb saw its revenue reach $10.8 billion in the first quarter of 2020,…

As had been widely expected, Gilead Sciences on Thursday announced that the Japanese Ministry of Health,…

Gilead Sciences scored a massive win earlier this week with its first positive data readout for investigational candidate remdesivir in treating patients with severe COVID-19. Gilead already has its own supply of the drug humming in anticipation of high demand, but opportunities are out there for a partner to join in. 

Novartis is using familiar faces—real patients from its Cosentyx TV commercials—to thank healthcare workers and promise support for patients. It’s a shift away from product-centered TV ads as Novartis adjusts its Cosentyx DTC effort during the COVID-19 crisis to highlight resources for patients, the drugmaker said.

Even a pandemic can’t slow down Seattle Genetics and Astellas' new bladder cancer treatment Padcev, which "blew out sales expectations" for the first quarter, analysts said. And now, they're jacking up their long-term sales estimates for the drug as a result.

AstraZeneca has watched superstar SGLT2 diabetes med Farxiga nail trial after trial in highly coveted kidney and heart failure indications, with the FDA expediting reviews to back them up. The one thing AstraZeneca was missing? The agency taking Farxiga across the finish line. 

Amgen is planning to file for FDA approval of Otezla in mild to moderate plaque psoriasis based on new data showing patients on the drug experienced significant improvements in their symptoms. The label expansion will be key to Amgen's ability to recoup the $13.4 billion it paid to acquire the drug from Celgene last year.

Bristol Myers Squibb CEO Giovanni Caforio credited COVID-19-related stocking for high sales of some products in the first quarter, including Eliquis, a blood thinner that's being snapped up to reduce clotting risk in patients with the virus. But the pandemic has limited access to oncology clinics and other non-COVID-19 services, raising challenges that could impact sales later this year.

Global Blood Therapeutics' sickle cell disease medicine Oxbryta got off to a hot start after a November FDA approval. But early in its launch, execs now say they're seeing a "clear headwind" from the COVID-19 pandemic. Lately, new patient starts have tanked by 60%, CEO Ted Love said.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn is in self-quarantine for a couple of weeks after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, an FDA spokesman told Reuters late on Friday.

More than 3.95 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 273,805 have died, according to a Reuters tally, as of 0214 GMT on Saturday.

Jorge De Castro Font, 45, a former senator in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, pleaded guilty today to 20 counts of honest services wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit extortion.

Three air cargo carriers, LAN Cargo S.A. (LAN Cargo), Aerolinhas Brasileiras S.A. (ABSA), and EL AL Israel Airlines Ltd. (EL AL), have each agreed to plead guilty and pay criminal fines totaling $124.7 million for their roles in a conspiracy to fix prices in the air cargo industry.

Roy Lynn Oakley, 67, a resident of Harriman, Tenn., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, to count one of an indictment charging him with unlawful disclosure of Restricted Data under the Atomic Energy Act, in violation of 42 U.S.C., Section 2274(b).

Hassan Saied Keshari and his corporation, Kesh Air International, pleaded guilty this morning in the Southern District of Florida to charges of conspiring to illegally export military and commercial aircraft parts to Iran. 

A Las Vegas federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Alan Rodrigues, a former pit boss and casino owner from Henderson, Nev.; Weston Coolidge, a businessman from Las Vegas; and Joseph Prokop, a former National Football League punter from Upland, Calif., with a tax fraud scheme for their promotion of a fraudulent tax product through the now defunct National Audit Defense Network (NADN).

The Department today filed suit against Ronald D. Peterson and Glen E. Johnson, the owner and rental manager, respectively, of 11 single family homes in Ypsilanti, Mich., alleging a pattern or practice of sexual harassment of female tenants.

A former high-level shipping executive was sentenced today to serve 48 months in jail and to pay a $20,000 criminal fine for his role in an antitrust conspiracy involving the transportation of goods to and from the continental United States and Puerto Rico by ocean vessel. This is the longest jail sentence ever imposed for a single antitrust charge.

Jimmy “Jimbo” Sullivan, the former chief of police in Mendenhall, Miss., pleaded guilty today to a felony civil rights violation, admitting that he used excessive force when he repeatedly stomped on the head of an arrestee.

Timothy Oldani, 24, of Scott Depot, W.Va., and Joseph Oldani, 21, of Camp Lejeune, N.C., both pleaded guilty today in the Southern District of West Virginia to conspiring to steal military optics from the U.S. Marine Corps and illegally export them from the United States.

A federal court in Maine has permanently barred Robert A. Grover from preparing federal tax returns for others. The court also ordered the Maine resident to provide his customer lists to the government and to mail copies of the complaint and court order to his customers. Grover consented to the civil injunction order.