Recon: ThermoFisher acquires PPD for $17.4B; First chimeric human-monkey embryos

• Daily U.S. Covid cases remain above 70,000 amid Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause (CNBC)
• Fauci, Jim Jordan spar over pandemic restrictions (The Hill)
• What’s behind the wait on a J&J vaccine verdict (Politico) (NYT) (WSJ)
• The J&J Vaccine Pause Is Science Working Like It’s Supposed To (Slate)
• Why the Johnson & Johnson pause may not matter for America’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout (VOX)
• Inside the puzzling delay in naming a new FDA commissioner (MMM Online)
• U.S. preparing for 1-year COVID-19 booster shots; Pfizer chief sees need (Reuters)
• FDA is urged to move faster to list medicines withdrawn over safety concerns (STAT)
• Hints emerge about a key Senate committee’s plans for health care (STAT)
• FDA inspection of Emergent’s Baltimore site in 2020 raises new questions (Endpoints)
• FDA wants more data on promising ALS drug, frustrating patients seeking faster access (STAT)
• US FDA Oncology Center Wants Trial Datasets Flagged As Remote Or In-Person Assessments (Pink Sheet)
• U.S. Prescription Drug Prices Are 2.5 Times Those in Other OECD Countries (RAND)
• Woodcock: COVID Is Not The Time For Structural Changes At US FDA (Pink Sheet)
• NIH funds new influenza research network (NIH)

• EU leaders want 'Digital Green Certificates' ready by summer (Healthcare IT News)
• Global officials urge rich countries to donate excess COVID-19 vaccines, money to help end pandemic (Reuters)
• Changing Strategy, E.U. Bets Big on Pfizer to Battle Covid (NYT)
• Antibiotics in development not enough to tackle 'superbugs'- WHO (Reuters) (Financial Times)
• Russia seeks to distance Sputnik V from blood clotting cases (Pharmaletter)
• Brazil's COVID-19 response cost thousands of lives, says humanitarian group (Reuters)
• WTO head urges movement on controversial Covid-19 vaccine proposal, but objections remain (STAT)

• UK scientists find higher risk of brain clots from COVID-19 compared with vaccines (Reuters)
• One year of SARS-CoV-2 evolution (EurekAlert)
• CDC finds less than 1 percent of fully vaccinated people got COVID-19 (The Hill)
• Vax Passports Are a Bad Idea (Medpage Today)
• CureVac hopes to win regulatory approval for its Covid vaccine by June (Financial Times)
• Record-breaking sales of $24.8bn by 2021 predicted for Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine (Pharmaletter)
• Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine research ‘was 97% publicly funded’ (Guardian)
• Moderna eyes beefed-up vaccine production with the help of U.S.-brokered manufacturing talks: report (Fierce)
• Two to a bed in Delhi hospital as India's COVID crisis spirals (Reuters) (CNBC)
• Penn study suggests those who had COVID-19 may only need one vaccine dose (EurekAlert)
• GeNeuro To Tackle Long COVID By Targeting Ancestor Viral Gene Activation (Scrip)
• Novartis agrees to help produce Roche’s repurposed COVID-19 drug (PMLive)
• Pfizer CEO: Third dose of COVID-19 vaccine 'likely' needed within 1 year  (CNBC) (The Hill)

• International team creates first chimeric human-monkey embryos (STAT)
• Vaccines that can protect against many coronaviruses could prevent another pandemic (Science)
• GSK discontinues two feladilimab trials in head and neck cancer (PMLive)
• Activist investor Elliott takes ‘significant’ stake in GlaxoSmithKline amid string of setbacks: report (Fierce)
• New name, new board, new focus: AltruBio relaunches with $63M series A (Fierce)
• Abzena picks North Carolina as the home for its 6th manufacturing site, plans to add 325 jobs in Sanford (Endpoints)
• Genechem’s bispecifics deal with I-Mab marks debut for a global strategy 20 years in the making (Biocentury)
• Designing better antibody drugs with artificial intelligence (EurekAlert)
• Next-generation DNA damage response programs at AACR (Biocentury)
• GSK stops Keytruda combo trials after ICOS drug falls short (Biopharma Reporter)
• Merck ends development of Covid drug it acquired from OncoImmune (CNBC)
• Roche’s Evrysdi drug for SMA shown to significantly increase survival (Pharmafile)
• With a new method to synthesize DNA, San Diego's Molecular Assemblies notches $24M Series A (Endpoints)
• Long-term survival rates for immunotherapies could be misinterpreted (EurekAlert)
• Eli Lilly axes 163 Dermira staffers, shutters Menlo Park site (Endpoints)
• NICE backs Ultomiris for adult patients with PNH (Pharmaletter)
• European Commission approves Opdivo plus Cambometyx for advanced kidney cancer (PMLive)
• The world of Wnt heads to Nasdaq as Surrozen announces a $212M SPAC deal (Endpoints)
• Call it a pandemic reckoning: New ESG expectations spur surge of pharma good deeds (Fierce)
• Investment in Rare Disease Drug Development Continues to Surge (Global Genes)

• Another big CRO deal has landed as Thermo Fisher acquires PPD for $17.4B (Endpoints)
• 6 medtechs to watch when earnings kick off next week (Medtech Dive)
• Medtronic Recalls Several Heart Devices Due to a Battery Problem (MD+DI)
• Glucose monitors revolutionized diabetes care. Now digital health startups want to bring them to the masses (STAT)
• Fitbit looks to close diversity gap in research with new Health Equity Research Initiative (Mobi Health News)
• Samsung upcycles older phones to diagnose eye diseases in impoverished communities (Mobi Health News)
• Anthem, K Health, Blackstone launch digital health company (MedCity News)

• Drone-Enabled Pharmaceutical Delivery: Navigating Regulatory Turbulence (Harvard Bill of Health)
• Ask and Ye Shall Receive, But Don’t Ask FDA for a Virtual Inspection (FDA Law Blog)
• Genentech and Centus Notify Court of Settlement of Bevacizumab Litigation (Goodwin)
• The FDA Seeks a New Way to Review Old Drugs Without Causing Prices to Soar (KHN)