In an effort to diversify its business, CSL Behring has entered an agreement to acquire Vifor Pharma. The deal will cost $11.7 billion which would be the largest M&A of 2021. The acquisition would give CSL kidney disease and iron deficiency franchises. CSL pipeline primarily has vaccine and blood plasma products.

Regeneron and Sanofi's IL-4/13 immunology drug, Dupixent, was the top ad-spender for six months running. However, in November, Dupixent moved down to No. 7, with more than $23 million dropped from the advertising budget for its ads.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged supply chains everywhere. The delivery of billions of vaccine doses and therapies globally has put an increasingly large spotlight on the global pharmaceutical supply chain. Now more than ever, there is a heightened focus on the development and ensuing distribution of pharmaceutical products—including the solutions, expertise and collaboration needed to deliver temperature-sensitive vaccines from a manufacturer’s facility to all corners of the world, on-time and in the right condition.

Pre-fabrication and modular construction are a couple of the fastest-growing trends in construction today. Modular building is a potentially helpful approach for a project whose main objective is a tight schedule or speed to market.

With many of its employees working from home and the completion of its spinoff 2seventy bio, Massachusetts-based bluebird bio decided it was time for a headquarters move. The company will move three miles north from its Kendall Square location to Assembly Row along the Mystic River in Somerville, MA. The new space has 61,000 square feet and will be home to 425 employees.

As AstraZeneca continues to focus on newer medicines, they have announced that they will sell its global rights to COPD inhalers Tudorza and Duaklir to Covis Pharma. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year at a cost of $270 million.

A recent L.E.K. Consulting report found that about 40% of meds approved between 2004 and 2016 underperformed Wall Street’s prelaunch sales forecasts by over 20% in their first three years on market.

To follow is a list of 10 drug launches from the past five years that suffered some of the most significant failures. The companies range from big pharma to biotech startups in various therapeutic areas.

In recent years, there have been many articles written about the increasing number of retiring Baby Boomers. The Pew Research Center has completed and released some studies on the rise of Baby Boomer retirements in 2020 and 2021.

In a year filled with its ups and downs, take a look at some of the most creative pharma ads from this past year.

Merck has announced that its experimental COVID-19 pill reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half in people recently infected with the coronavirus. With this news, they will soon ask health officials in the U.S. and around the world to authorize its use.

Two years ago, Amgen purchased the marketing rights to Celgene’s psoriasis pill Otezla for $13.4 billion. At that time, the company most likely did not think it would have to compete against Sandoz and Zydus Pharmaceutical in the generics market any time soon. And now, thanks to a win in court, Amgen appears poised to enjoy several more years of exclusivity in the key U.S. market.

Sanofi and Regeneron have announced that Dupixent has met all of its goals in a phase 3 trial studying the treatment in children aged 6 months to 5 years old with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis, making it the only biologic drug with positive data in patients that young.

The first full approval for a COVID-19 vaccine has been awarded by the FDA. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech’s vaccine, now marketed as Comirnaty, is now approved for people 16 and older. It will remain under an emergency status for adolescents aged 12 to 15.

According to multiple news outlets, the Biden administration has decided to recommend booster shots for most Americans. According to The New York Times, the endorsement could come as early as this week.

Citing impurity concerns, Sanofi has pulled hypertension medications in Korea and UK. This recall joins concerns first raised in Canada and Europe.

GSK’s Shingrix was initially approved by the FDA in October 2017 for the prevention of shingles in adults aged 50 and older. However, the pandemic and CDC’s recommendation for individuals not to get another vaccine within weeks of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine has caused many people to miss vaccinations.

AstraZeneca’s, Bydureon, has met its endpoint in a phase 3 clinical trial of people aged 10 to 17 with type 2 diabetes. The study is testing a once-weekly formulation of the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist exenatide.

Amgen has plans to spend $365 million on a new smart factory in New Albany, Ohio. This facility is expected to be the most digitally advanced of all of its locations. Construction of the new 270,000 square-foot building is to begin in the fall of 2021 and will eventually employ 400 individuals.

Thanks in part to the pandemic, a newer company measuring stick for fund investors and younger employees is the ESG accountability. This includes the environment, social, and governance categories.

PharmStars, the first and only pharma-focused accelerator for digital health startups, was founded just weeks ago and already has Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly and Takeda join their platform. PharmStars’ focus is to connect drugmakers to digital health startups.