Recon: US pays $1.95B for Pfizer, BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine; Biogen lifts forecast on Tecfidera sales

• Pfizer Gets $1.95 Billion to Produce Coronavirus Vaccine by Year’s End (NYTimes) (Press)
• Exclusive: Novavax executives could get big payday even if vaccine fails (Reuters)
• Among biotech venture capital firms, Flagship Pioneering got the best single-fund returns (STAT)
• White House considers drug pricing executive order, prompting GOP pushback (The Hill)
• AbbVie, famous for its Humira strategy, forms 'patent wall' around Imbruvica: report (Fierce)
• Biogen lifts full-year profit forecast as Tecfidera boosts quarter (Reuters)
• Biogen unexpectedly replaces CFO Capello with IQVIA vet, sparking M&A speculation (Fierce) (Endpoints)

• Merck taps contract research firm IRBM for peptides to hit back at pandemic virus (Fierce)
• Pharmaceutical Strategy Could Save European ATMP Development (Pink Sheet)
• Danish Agency To Buy New Pharmacovigilance System (Pink Sheet)
• New COVID-19 Law Lab to provide vital legal information and support for the global COVID-19 response (WHO)
• WHA Report on addressing the burden of epilepsy and other neurological disorders available online (WHO)

• Trump tries to rebrand the coronavirus response (Politico) (CNBC)
• Dr. Anthony Fauci warns the coronavirus won’t ever be eradicated (CNBC)
• McConnell previews GOP coronavirus relief bill (The Hill)
• Confusion spreads over system to determine priority access to Covid-19 vaccines (STAT)
• Singapore greenlights clinical trials for vaccine candidate developed by Arcturus and Duke-NUS Medical School (CNBC)
• LabCorp CEO says coronavirus in US is spreading faster than it can add testing capacity (CNBC)
• Testing delays once again hamper COVID-19 response (The Hill)
• Actual Covid-19 case count could be 6 to 24 times higher than official estimates, CDC study shows (STAT)
• Ebola prepared these countries for coronavirus — but now even they are floundering (Nature)
• Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: Daily Roundup July 21, 2020 (FDA)

• Pfizer, Amgen, GSK lead spike in digital ad spend during COVID-19 pandemic (Fierce)
• Acadia pulls plug on pimavanserin for adjunctive MDD (PharmaTimes)
• 'Missing link': Bayer, Morningside help catapult a new kind of delivery tech to cell and gene therapy (Endpoints) (Fierce)
• Biogen's lagging Vumerity, stalled by the pandemic, faces 'critical' stretch ahead, CEO says (Fierce)
• Clinical trials need to include more Black and other minority participants. Here’s how (STAT)
• GV's David Schenkein comes in to help mentor — and bankroll — a gene therapy 2.0 player, intrigued by their ‘science heavy’ approach to conquering severe disease (Endpoints)
• Can fully shutting down the estrogen receptor make a difference in breast cancer? Olema scores $54M to find out in the clinic (Endpoints)
• Cullinan Oncology launches new subsidiary focused on collagen-binding cytokine treatment (Endpoints)
• Ayahuasca inspires another biotech startup at ATAI; Mylan TB drug gets green light in India (Endpoints)
• Seer raises another $55M and finally reveals proteomic tech — can it hold up? (Endpoints)

• Boston Scientific’s next-gen stroke prevention device gets FDA nod (MassDevice)
• Thermo Fisher rises on COVID-19 response-driven Q2 (MassDevice)
• Scientists inch closer to blood test to detect early stage cancer (NBC)
• Switzerland approves MedDO revision and moves toward MDR harmonization (Emergo)
• LifeSignals Receives US FDA Clearance To Market ECG Remote Monitoring Platform (MedtechInsight)

• HHS secretary’s wife has been lobbying the agency on behalf of health care companies (STAT)
• Pay-For-Delay May Need More Evidence After 3rd Circ. Ruling (Law360)
• Medicaid’s Multiple Best Price Proposal Needs More Clarity Before Advancing, PhRMA Argues (Pink Sheet)
• Another Problem on the Health Horizon: Medicare Is Running Out of Money (KHN)