Access is a key theme in Merck’s latest environmental, social and governance (ESG) progress report, as the pharma giant touts a deal to provide more than 91 million doses of its human papillomavirus vaccine to lower-income countries through 2025.
The news comes as childhood HPV vaccination rates have taken a nosedive amid the pandemic. Merck recently unveiled a new HPV campaign addressing the decline in the US. The latest deal, however, applies to Gavi-supported countries, which totaled 57 in 2020 according to the organization’s website.
“Merck has had a long-standing access to health approach and one of those examples is through ensuring that our HPV vaccines get to the right people,” Kyra Lanza, Merck’s associate VP of ESG strategy and engagement, told Endpoints News.
The pharma expanded its Elkton, VA manufacturing facility to boost HPV vaccine production. It also inked a deal with the Medicines Patent Pool to allow the generic production of its Covid-19 antiviral molnupiravir in low- and middle-income countries.
Back in May, the US had only used about 13% of the molnupiravir courses in its inventory, according to HHS. That’s due in part to an FDA revision in February, which stipulated that the antiviral should be used as a last line of defense if other options are available. However, Merck maintains that the drug plays a key role in pandemic response, and released new data in June.
“We really started early on in looking at the supply and access strategy to make sure that there was equitable global access. So we had a number of steps that we took, certainly we invested at risk to make sure we could produce millions of that therapy,” Lanza said.
Merck has also earmarked more than $93 million in products and funds for Ukrainian refugees and those still in the country.
Looking ahead, the company hopes its medicines reach 100 million more people by 2025. The company says it’s on track to meet its goal of reaching 30 million people in low- and middle-income countries by 2025, with 15 million people reached so far.
As for its environmental ambitions, Merck says it’s on track to reach carbon neutrality by 2025, and has also committed to sourcing all of its purchased electricity from renewables by the same year.
By last year, about 75% of Merck’s staffers had gone through a pay equity study, and as a result, the company achieved roughly 99% pay equity for female and male employees and white and non-white employees in the same positions.
“Merck has always had a long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion and certainly, alongside that goes fair and equitable pay,” Lanza said. “It really just furthers our goal of being an employer of choice for all workers, including those of diverse backgrounds.”
In November of 1937, editors from JAMA magazine penned a scathing letter about the United States’ inability to protect patients from toxins that masquerade as therapeutics, saying the drug development process was in dire need of laws with “common scientific decency.” In the preceding months, the nation had been riveted by the sudden deaths of nearly 100 people after taking elixir sulfanilamide. According to a congressional report, the elixir had been given to patients despite having only been “tested for its flavor but not its effect on human life.” Up until this point, drug manufacturers were not required to test therapeutics before sending them to market.
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This is going to be a long weekend for us at Endpoints, thanks to Labor Day in the US, and it’s much needed. September is shaping up to be a busy month, with biopharma seemingly coming back from the summer and events kicking into gear. If you have any news to share, we always appreciate some lead time. For the daily readers — see you on Tuesday.
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Some shuffling is taking place at the top ranks of Pfizer.
Longtime exec Andy Schmeltz announced on LinkedIn that he’s moving onto his next tour of duty to helm the newly established Pfizer Commercial Strategy & Innovation (CSI) group, which will be in charge of portfolio strategy and investment decisions. Taking his place leading the oncology unit will be Suneet Varma — a fellow Pfizer vet with almost 22 years at the pharma giant — who’s been appointed as global oncology & US president.
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An administrative judge ruled Illumina’s $8 billion acquisition of cancer-testing company Grail didn’t violate antitrust law, Illumina said on Thursday.
A Federal Trade Commission lawsuit threatened to unwind Illumina’s acquisition of Grail, a blood testing company that screens for cancers at an early stage.
“As we’ve stated from the outset, this transaction is procompetitive, will advance innovation, lower healthcare costs and save lives,” Illumina general counsel Charles Dadswell said in a statement.
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The FDA’s briefing docs are in ahead of its unusual second adcomm for Amylyx Pharmaceuticals’ experimental ALS drug next week — and the agency’s opinion is largely negative.
While acknowledging that ALS treatments are “desperately needed” and providing an extensive history of their previous flexibility for the disease, FDA reviewers wrote that Amylyx’s submission of new analyses is “not independent data and is simply a new method for analyzing the same survival data presented in the original NDA submission.” The new data packages involve patients who switched over from treatment to placebo after the Phase II trial wrapped up, suggesting better survival results than the study originally indicated.
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The FDA on Friday expanded its approval of Vertex’s blockbuster cystic fibrosis pill Orkambi to include children between 12 and 24 months.
Orkambi first won approval in 2015 for ages 2 years and older with two copies of the F508del mutation, but Vertex went for the earlier age indication, as CMO Carmen Bozic said in a statement: “Treating children with cystic fibrosis as early in life as possible is critically important, because early treatment has the potential to slow the progression of this devastating disease.”
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While the ad industry is navigating a jittery economy — and the looming threat of marketing budget cuts — the pharma sector seems to be humming along. One proof point this week is Real Chemistry, the second-largest healthcare agency in North America, with a healthy first-half report and double-digit growth.
The digital communications and marketing company reported on Wednesday’s first half revenues of more than $270 million, a 21% increase compared to the first half of 2021. While the 2022 jump won’t surpass the pandemic affected 2020 to 2021 increase of 35%, Real Chemistry CEO Shankar Narayanan said it’s projecting full-year growth of 20%. Real Chemistry notched $439 million in 2021 sales, putting the projected 2022 full year at more than $525 million.
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In early August, Teva hit a bump in producing the popular ADHD drug Adderall, as the company faced a backorder of the drug in 20 mg and 30 mg tablets, however, the situation has spread to a few other makers of the drug.
According to a report from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (AHSP), the shortage has continued for Teva and other manufacturers, as Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Purdue subsidiary Rhodes Pharmaceuticals and Sandoz all face shortages.
United Therapeutics claimed victory earlier this week in a patent battle against Liquidia Technologies, which won tentative FDA approval for its treprostinil inhalation powder, Yutrepia, to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and would compete directly with United’s soon-to-be blockbuster Tyvaso DPI.
The Delaware-based district court found that Liquidia failed to prove by “clear and convincing evidence” that certain claims on one of the patents are invalid. But both companies claimed victory over other parts of the decision, and when Yutrepia will launch is still up in the air.
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