As part of Sanofi's endeavor to accelerate the application of messenger RNA (mRNA) to develop therapeutics and vaccines, the company has entered into a definitive agreement with Translate Bio (NASDAQ: TBIO), a clinical-stage mRNA therapeutics company, under which Sanofi will acquire all outstanding shares of Translate Bio for $38.00 per share in cash, which represents a total equity value of approximately $3.2 billion (on a fully diluted basis).

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) and Incyte (NASDAQ:INCY) announced today results from an additional cohort of 101 adult patients from the COV-BARRIER trial. In this sub-study, patients with COVID-19 on mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) who received baricitinib plus standard of care were 46 percent less likely to die by Day 28 compared to patients who received placebo plus standard of care (nominal p-value=0.0296; hazard ratio [HR] [95% CI] = 0.54 [0.31, 0.96]; analysis not adjusted for multiplicity).

GlaxoSmithKline plc and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. announced they have signed a Joint Procurement Agreement with the European Commission to supply up to 220,000 doses of sotrovimab, an investigational single dose SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody for the treatment of adults and adolescents (aged 12 years and over and weighing at least 40 kg) with COVID-19 who do not require oxygen supplementation and who are at risk of progressing to severe COVID-19.

In a large real-world study, data published as a pre-print on The Lancet server from over one million individuals assessed the incidence rates of blood clotting disorders of thromboembolism and thrombocytopenia, including the very rare thrombosis with thrombocytopenia (TTS) following vaccination with an mRNA vaccine or Vaxzevria, and compared them with expected rates in a general population and in people with COVID-19.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX) announced that the U.S. government has purchased an additional 200 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. These doses are expected to be delivered from October 2021 through April 2022. This brings the total number of doses to be supplied by the companies to the U.S. government under its existing supply agreement to 500 million.

AstraZeneca has entered into a collaboration with Regeneron to research, develop and commercialise small molecule compounds directed against the GPR75 target with the potential to treat obesity and related co-morbidities.

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced that Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has approved Ronapreve™ (casirivimab and imdevimab), for the treatment of patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 via intravenous infusion.