Look back at pharma news in the week to March 20, 2020

Coronavirus again dominated the news last week, as Germany’s CureVac gained a lot of attention on talk that the US government was planning to acquire its COVID-10 program. Another German company, BioNTech, announced solid progress on its COVID-19 vaccine program along with a new alliance with Fosun Pharma. US biotech Moderna shot up on Monday, on news that its coronavirus vaccine mRNA-1273 had seen its first patient dosed in a National Institutes of Health study. There was also a fair amount of excitement after Chinese doctors declared that Fujifilm Toyama’s Avigan was effective in COVID-19. Meantime, Novo Nordisk suffered a setback in a trial of concizumab in hemophilia.

CureVac, the subject of a reported US overture, thrust into the coronavirus spotlight

The US government reportedly sought to access research by Germany's CureVac on an experimental coronavirus vaccine, raising in the European country and deepening the intrigue surrounding the biotech, which last week ousted its chief executive, commented Ned Pagliarulo on BioPharma Dive.