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The US government is to provide up to $2.1 billion to Sanofi SA and GlaxoSmithKline Plc to help them develop and manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine. The two European companies are among eight others selected for support under the government’s Operation Warp Speed programme. The goal is to secure supplies of a variety of vaccines for the US population.

Sanofi and GSK are working on a candidate vaccine that combines the French company’s recombinant protein-based technology with adjuvant from GSK. Sanofi has used the same technology for an influenza vaccine.

Sanofi SA reported a strong performance of the specialty medicine Dupixent in the second quarter, a period which also saw the French multinational seal an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline Plc to develop a new vaccine for Covid-19. On 31 July, the two companies announced supply agreements with both the US and the EU for the vaccine, which is based on recombinant protein-based technology developed by Sanofi and adjuvant from GSK.

Immunic Inc has reported positive Phase 2 data for its small molecule drug for multiple sclerosis. The study of IMU-838 achieved primary and key secondary endpoints of the trial, which enrolled patients with relapsing-remitting disease. In a statement on 3 August, Andreas Muehler, chief medical officer, said the data showed robust responses across all study endpoints as well as a favourable safety and tolerability profile.

AstraZeneca Plc ended the first half with higher sales across all product groups and geographical areas as well as an increase in its operating profit margin. The sales increases were led by products for lung and ovarian cancers, as well as the asthma medicine Symbicort. Geographically, sales were higher in the emerging markets than in the US, driven by sales in China.

Belgium-based UCB SA is to out-license an experimental anti-tau antibody to the Roche group for development as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. The antibody, UCB0107, targets a central tau epitope which is being developed to block or reduce the spread of tau pathology.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc is taking multiple steps to use its vaccine capacity to deliver new products to treat and prevent Covid-19. At the same time, the economic disruption caused by the pandemic is a risk factor for the company’s overall business, Emma Walmsley, the chief executive, told journalists on 29 July.

Germany-based BioNTech SE has raised $512 million in a secondary offering on Nasdaq to support its ongoing therapies for cancer and infectious diseases which include a candidate vaccine for Covid-19. The results of the financing were announced on 27 July, the same day that BioNTech and its partner, Pfizer Inc, launched a Phase 2/3 trial of their messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine candidate for Covid-19.

Two late clinical-stage trials of candidate messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines for Covid-19 have begun, the sponsors announced on 27 July. The developers are Moderna Inc, which is working with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Pfizer Inc, which is collaborating with BioNTech SE of Germany.

AstraZeneca Plc is to co-develop a second antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) with Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd of Japan, this time with the goal of treating multiple cancers with a single drug. The compound, DS-1062, is in early clinical development for non-small cell lung cancer and breast cancer, both of which overexpress the cell-surface glycoprotein Trop2. This protein is overexpressed on a wide variety of tumours.

The Roche group expects sales this year to increase by a low-to mid-single digit percentage at constant exchange rates, despite headwinds from the coronavirus pandemic. Like other pharma companies, Roche’s sales were hit in the second quarter as patients cancelled routine hospital visits in order to comply with lockdown restrictions. This impacted sales of the company’s multiple sclerosis drug Ocrevus; the haemophilia drug Hemlibra; the eye treatment Lucentis; and the cancer treatment MabThera.