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covid-safer-hotties · 2 months ago

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by Rowan Walrath

Public and private funding is lacking, scrambling opportunities to develop treatments

In brief Long COVID is a difficult therapeutic area to work in. It’s a scientifically challenging condition, but perhaps more critically, few want to fund new treatments. Private investors, Big Pharma, and government agencies alike see long COVID as too risky as long as its underlying mechanisms are so poorly understood. This dynamic has hampered the few biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies trying to develop new medicines. The lack of funding has frustrated people with long COVID, who have few options available to them. And crucially, it has snarled research and development, cutting drug development short.

When COVID-19 hit, the biotechnology company Aim ImmunoTech was developing a drug for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, better known as ME/CFS. As more people came down with COVID-19, some began to describe lingering problems that sounded a lot like ME/CFS. In many cases, people who got sick simply never seemed to get better. In others, they recovered completely—or thought they had—only to be waylaid by new problems: fatigue that wouldn’t go away with any amount of rest, brain fog that got in the way of normal conversations, a sudden tendency toward dizziness and fainting, or all the above.

There was a clear overlap between the condition, which patients began calling long COVID, and ME/CFS. People with ME/CFS have a deep, debilitating fatigue. They cannot tolerate much, if any, exercise; walking up a slight incline can mean days of recovery. Those with the most severe cases are bedbound.

Aim’s leaders set out to test whether the company’s drug, Ampligen, which is approved for ME/CFS in Argentina but not yet in the US, might be a good fit for treating long COVID. They started with a tiny study, just 4 people. When most of those participants responded well, they scaled up to 80. While initial data were mixed, people taking Ampligen were generally able to walk farther in a 6 min walk test than those who took a placebo, indicating improvement in baseline fatigue. The company is now making plans for a follow-on study in long COVID.

Aim’s motivation for testing Ampligen in long COVID was twofold. Executives believed they could help people with the condition, given the significant overlap in symptoms with ME/CFS. But they also, plainly, thought there’d be money. They were wrong.

“When we first went out to do this study in long COVID, there was money from . . . RECOVER,” Aim scientific officer Chris McAleer says, referring to Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER), the National Institutes of Health’s $1.7 billion initiative to fund projects investigating causes of, and potential treatments for, long COVID. McAleer says Aim attempted to get RECOVER funds, “believing that we had a therapeutic for these individuals, and we get nothing.”

Instead of funding novel medicines like Ampligen, the NIH has directed most of its RECOVER resources to observational studies designed to learn more about the condition, not treat it. Only last year did the agency begin to fund clinical trials for long COVID treatments, and those investigate the repurposing of approved drugs. What RECOVER is not doing is funding new compounds.

RECOVER is the only federal funding mechanism aimed at long COVID research. Other initiatives, like the $5 billion Project NextGen and the $577 million Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Centers for Pathogens of Pandemic Concern, put grant money toward next-generation vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and antivirals for COVID-19. They stop short of testing those compounds as long COVID treatments.

Private funding is even harder to come by. Large pharmaceutical companies have mostly stayed away from the condition. (Some RECOVER trials are testing Pfizer’s COVID-19 antiviral Paxlovid, but a Pfizer spokesperson confirms that Pfizer is not sponsoring those studies.) Most investors have also avoided long COVID: a senior analyst on PitchBook’s biotech team, which tracks industry financing closely, says he isn’t aware of any investment in the space.

“What you need is innovation on this front that’s not driven by profit motive, but impact on global human health,” says Sumit Chanda, an immunologist and microbiologist at Scripps Research who coleads one of the AViDD centers. “We could have been filling in the gaps for things like long COVID, where pharma doesn’t see that there’s a billion-dollar market.”

The few biotech companies that are developing potential treatments for long COVID, including Aim, are usually funding those efforts out of their own balance sheets. Experts warn that such a pattern is not sustainable. At least four companies that were developing long COVID treatments have shut down because of an apparent lack of finances. Others are evaluating a shift away from long COVID.

“It is seen by the industry and by investors as a shot in the dark,” says Radu Pislariu, cofounder and CEO of Laurent Pharmaceuticals, a start-up that’s developing an antiviral and anti-inflammatory for long COVID. “What I know is that nobody wants to hear about COVID. When you say the name COVID, it’s bad . . ., but long COVID is not going anywhere, because COVID-19 is endemic. It will stay. At some point, everyone will realize that we have to do more for it.”

‘Time and patience and money’ Much of the hesitancy to make new medicines stems from the evasive nature of long COVID itself. The condition is multisystemic, affecting the brain, heart, endocrine network, immune system, reproductive organs, and gastrointestinal tract. While researchers are finding increasing evidence for some of the disease’s mechanisms, like viral persistence, immune dysregulation, and mitochondrial dysfunction, they might not uncover a one-size-fits-all treatment.

“Until we have a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of long COVID, I think physicians are doing the best they can with the information they have and the guidance that is available to them,” says Ian Simon, director of the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Long COVID Research and Practice. The research taking place now will eventually guide new therapeutic development, he says.

Meanwhile, time marches on.

By the end of 2023, more than 409 million people worldwide had long COVID, according to a recent review coauthored by two cofounders of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative (PLRC) and several prominent long COVID researchers (Nat. Med. 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41591-024-03173-6). Most of those 409 million contracted COVID-19 and then long COVID after vaccines and antivirals became available. That fact undercuts the notion that the condition results only from severe cases of COVID-19 contracted before those interventions existed. (Vaccination and treatment with antivirals do correlate with a lower incidence of long COVID but don’t prevent it outright.)

“There is that narrative that long COVID is over,” says Hannah Davis, cofounder of the PLRC and a coauthor of the review, who has had long COVID since 2020. “I think that’s fairly obviously not true.”

The few biotech companies that have taken matters into their own hands, like Aim, are often reduced to small study sizes with limited time frames because they can’t get outside funding.

InflammX Therapeutics, a Florida-based ophthalmology firm headed by former Bausch & Lomb executive Brian Levy, started testing an anti-inflammatory drug candidate called Xiflam after Levy’s daughter came down with long COVID. Xiflam is designed to close connexin 43 (Cx43) hemichannels when they become pathological. The hemichannels, which form in cell membranes, would otherwise allow intracellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to escape and signal the NLRP3 inflammasome to crank up its activity, causing pain and inflammation.

InflammX originally conceived of Xiflam as a treatment for inflammation in various eye disorders, but after Levy familiarized himself with the literature on long COVID, he figured the compound might be useful for people like his daughter.

InflammX set up a small Phase 2a study at a site just outside Boston. The trial will enroll just 20 participants, including Levy’s daughter and InflammX’s chief operating and financial officer, David Pool, who also has long COVID. The study is set up such that participants don’t know if they’re taking Xiflam or a placebo.

Levy says the company tried to communicate with NIH RECOVER staff multiple times but never heard back. “We couldn’t wait,” he says.

Larger firms are similarly disconnected from US federal efforts. COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna appointed a vice president of long COVID last year. Bishoy Rizkalla now oversees a small team studying how the company’s messenger RNA shots could mitigate problems caused by new and latent viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. But Rizkalla says Moderna has no federally funded projects in long COVID.

Federal bureaucracy has slowed down research in other ways. When long COVID appeared, Tonix Pharmaceuticals was developing a possible drug called TNX-102 SL to treat fibromyalgia. The two conditions look similar: they’re painful, fatiguing, and multisystemic, and fibromyalgia can crop up after a viral infection.

But it wasn’t easy to design a study to test the compound in long COVID. Among other issues, the US Food and Drug Administration initially insisted that participants have a positive COVID-19 test confirmed by a laboratory, like a polymerase chain reaction test, to be included in the study. At-home diagnostics wouldn’t count.

“We spent a huge amount of money, and we couldn’t enroll people who had lab-confirmed COVID because no one was going to labs to confirm their COVID,” cofounder and CEO Seth Lederman says. “We just ran out of time and patience and money, frankly.”

Tonix had planned to enroll 450 participants. The company ultimately enrolled only 63. The study failed to meet its primary end point of reducing pain intensity, a result Lederman attributes to the smaller-than-expected sample size.

TNX-102 SL trended toward improvements in fatigue and other areas, like sleep quality and cognitive function, but Tonix is moving away from developing the compound as a long COVID treatment and focusing on developing it for fibromyalgia. If it’s approved, Lederman hopes that physicians will prescribe it to people who meet the clinical criteria for fibromyalgia regardless of whether their condition stems from COVID-19.

“I’m not saying we’re not going to do another study in long COVID, but for the short term, it’s deemphasized,” Lederman says.

Abandoned attempts Without more public or private investment, it’s unclear how research can proceed. The small corner of the private sector that has endeavored to take on long COVID is slowly becoming a graveyard.

Axcella Therapeutics made a big gamble in late 2022. The company pivoted from trying to treat nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, a liver disease, to addressing chronic fatigue in people with long COVID. In doing so, Axcella reoriented itself exclusively around long COVID, laying off most of its staff and abandoning other research activities. People in a 41-person Phase 2a trial of the drug candidate, AXA1125, showed improvement in fatigue scores based on a clinical questionnaire (eClinicalMedicine 2023, DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101946), but Axcella shut down before it could get its planned 300-person follow-on study up and running.

The fate of AXA1125 may be to gather dust. Axcella’s former executives have moved on to other pursuits. Erstwhile chief medical officer Margaret Koziel, once a champion of AXA1125, says by email that she is “not up to date on current research on long COVID.” Staff at the University of Oxford, which ran the Phase 2a study, were not able to procure information about the planned Phase 2b/3 trial. A spokesperson for Flagship Pioneering, the venture firm that founded Axcella in 2011, declined to comment to C&EN.

Other firms have met similar ends. Ampio Pharmaceuticals dissolved in August after completing only a Phase 1 study to evaluate an inhaled medication called Ampion in people with long COVID who have breathing issues. Biotech firm SolAeroMed shut down before even starting a trial of its bronchodilating medicine for people with long COVID. “Unfortunately we were unable to attract funding to support our clinical work for COVID,” CEO John Dennis says by email.

Another biotech company, Aerium Therapeutics, did manage to get just enough of its monoclonal antibody AER002 manufactured and in the hands of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, before it ended operations. The researchers are now testing AER002 in a Phase 2 trial with people with long COVID. Michael Peluso, an infectious disease clinician and researcher at UCSF and principal investigator of the trial, says that while AER002 may not advance without a company behind it, the study could be valuable for validating long COVID’s mechanisms of disease and providing a proof of concept for monoclonal antibody treatment more generally.

“[Aerium] put a lot of effort into making sure that the study would not be impacted,” Peluso says. “Regardless of the results of this study, doing a follow-up study now that we’ve kind of learned the mechanics of it with modern monoclonals would be really, really interesting.”

‘A squandered opportunity’ In 2022, the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) put about $577 million toward nine research centers that would discover and develop antivirals for various pathogens. Called the Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Centers for Pathogens of Pandemic Concern, the centers were initially imagined as 5-year projects, enough time to ready multiple candidates for preclinical development. The NIH allocated money for the first 3 years and promised more funds to come later.

The prospect excited John Chodera, a computational chemist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a principal investigator at an AViDD center called the AI-Driven Structure-Enabled Antiviral Platform. Chodera figured that if his team were able to develop a potent antiviral for SARS-CoV-2, it could potentially be used to treat long COVID as well. A predominant theory is that reservoirs of hidden virus in the body cause ongoing symptoms.

But Chodera says NIAID told him and other AViDD investigators that establishing long COVID models was out of scope. And last year, Congress clawed back unspent COVID-19 pandemic relief funds, including the pool of money intended for the AViDD centers’ last 2 years. Lawmakers were supposed to come through with additional funding, Chodera says, but it never materialized. All nine AViDD centers will run out of money come May 2025.

“When we do start to understand what the molecular targets for long COVID are going to be, it’d be very easy to pivot and train our fire on those targets,” says Chanda from Scripps’s AViDD center. “The problem is that it took us probably 2 years to get everything up and going. If you cut the funding after 3 years, we basically have to dismantle it. We don’t have an opportunity to say, ‘Hey, look, this is what we’ve done. We can now take this and train our fire on X, Y, and Z.’ ”

Researchers at multiple AViDD centers confirm that the NIH has offered a 1-year, no-cost extension, but it doesn’t come with additional funds. They now find themselves in the same position as many academic labs: seeking grant money to keep their projects going.

Worse, they say, is that applying for other grants will likely mean splitting up research teams, thus undoing the network effect that these centers were supposed to provide.

“Now what we’ve got is a bunch of half bridges with nowhere to fund the continuation of that work,” says Nathaniel Moorman, cofounder and scientific adviser of the Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Development Initiative, which houses an AViDD center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“This was a squandered opportunity, not just for pandemic preparedness but to tackle these unmet needs that are being neglected by biotech and pharma,” Chanda says.

Viral persistence Ann Kwong has been here before. The virologist was among the first industry scientists trying to develop antivirals for hepatitis C virus (HCV) back in the 1990s. Kwong led an antiviral discovery team at the Schering-Plough Research Institute for 6 years. In 1997, Vertex Pharmaceuticals recruited her to lead its new virology group.

Kwong and her team at Vertex developed a number of antivirals for HCV, HIV, and influenza viruses; one was the HCV protease inhibitor telaprevir. She recalls that a major challenge for the HCV antivirals was that scientists didn’t know where in the body the virus was hiding. Kwong says she had to fight to develop an antiviral that targeted the liver since it hadn’t yet been confirmed that HCV primarily resides there. People with chronic hepatitis C would in many cases eventually develop liver failure or cancer, but they presented with other issues too, like brain fog, fatigue, and inflammation.

She sees the same dynamic playing out in long COVID.

“This reminds me of HIV days and HCV days,” Kwong says. “This idea that pharma doesn’t want to work on this because we don’t know things about SARS-CoV-2 and long COVID is bullshit.”

Since January, Kwong has been cooking up something new. She’s approaching long COVID the way she did chronic hepatitis C: treating it as a chronic infection, through a start-up called Persistence Bio. Persistence is still in stealth; its name reflects its mission to create antivirals that can reach hidden reservoirs of persistent SARS-CoV-2, which many researchers believe to be a cause of long COVID.

“Long COVID is really interesting because there’s so many different symptoms,” Kwong says. “As a virologist, I am not surprised, because it’s an amazing virus. It infects every tissue in your body. . . . All the autopsy studies show that it’s in your brain. It’s in your gut. It’s in your lungs. It’s in your heart. To me, all the different symptoms are indicative of where the virus has gone when it infected you.”

Kwong has experienced some of these symptoms firsthand. She contracted COVID-19 while flying home to Massachusetts from Germany in 2020. For about a year afterward, she’d get caught off guard by sudden bouts of fatigue, bending over to catch her breath as she walked around the horse farm where she lives, her legs aching. Those symptoms went away with time and luck, but another round of symptoms roared to life this spring, including what Kwong describes as “partial blackouts.”

Kwong hasn’t been formally diagnosed with long COVID, but she says she “strongly suspects” she has it. Others among Persistence’s team of about 25 also have the condition.

“Long COVID patients have been involved with the founding of our company, and we work closely with them and know how awful the condition can be,” Kwong says. “It is a big motivator for our team.”

Persistence is in the process of fundraising. Kwong says she’s in conversations with private investors, but she and her cofounders are hoping to get public funding too.

On Sept. 23, the NIH is convening a 3-day workshop to review what RECOVER has accomplished and plan the next phase of the initiative. Crucially, that phase will include additional clinical trials. RECOVER’s $1.7 billion in funding includes a recent award of $515 million over the next 4 years. It’s not out of the question that this time, industry players might be invited to the table. Tonix Pharmaceuticals’ Lederman and Aim ImmunoTech’s McAleer will both speak during the workshop.

The US Senate Committee on Appropriations explicitly directed the NIH during an Aug. 1 meeting to prioritize research to understand, diagnose, and treat long COVID. It also recommended that Congress put $1.5 billion toward the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), which often partners with industry players. The committee instructed ARPA-H to invest in “high-risk, high-reward research . . . focused on drug trials, development of biomarkers, and research that includes long COVID associated conditions.” Also last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the Long COVID Research Moonshot Act, which would give the NIH $1 billion a year for a decade to treat and monitor patients.

It’s these kinds of mechanisms that might make a difference for long COVID drug development.

“What I’ve seen a lot is pharma being hesitant to get involved,” says Lisa McCorkell, a cofounder of the PLRC and a coauthor of the recent long COVID review. “Maybe they’ll invest if NIH also matches their investment or something like that. Having those public-private partnerships is really, at this stage, what will propel us forward.”

#mask up #covid #pandemic #wear a mask #covid 19 #public health #coronavirus #sars cov 2 #still coviding #wear a respirator #long covid #covid conscious #covid is not over #wear a fucking mask

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year ago

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Uncle Sam paid to develop a cancer drug and now one guy will get to charge whatever he wants for it

Today (Oct 19), I'm in Charleston, WV to give the 41st annual McCreight Lecture in the Humanities. Tomorrow (Oct 20), I'm at Charleston's Taylor Books from 12h-14h.

The argument for pharma patents: making new medicines is expensive, and medicines are how we save ourselves from cancer and other diseases. Therefore, we will award government-backed monopolies – patents – to pharma companies so they will have an incentive to invest their shareholders' capital in research.

There's plenty wrong with this argument. For one thing, pharma companies use their monopoly winnings to sell drugs, not invent drugs. For every dollar pharma spends on research, it spends three dollars on marketing:

https://www.bu.edu/sph/files/2015/05/Pharmaceutical-Marketing-and-Research-Spending-APHA-21-Oct-01.pdf

And that "R&D" isn't what you're thinking of, either. Most R&D spending goes to "evergreening" – coming up with minor variations on existing drugs in a bid to extend those patents for years or decades:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3680578/

Evergreening got a lot of attention recently when John Green rained down righteous fire upon Johnson & Johnson for their sneaky tricks to prevent poor people from accessing affordable TB meds, prompting this excellent explainer from the Arm and A Leg Podcast:

https://armandalegshow.com/episode/john-green-part-1/

Another thing those monopoly profits are useful for: "pay for delay," where pharma companies bribe generic manufacturers not to make cheap versions of drugs whose patents have expired. Sure, it's illegal, but that doesn't stop 'em:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/topics/competition-enforcement/pay-delay

But it's their money, right? If they want to spend it on bribes or evergreening or marketing, at least some of that money is going into drugs that'll keep you and the people you love from enduring unimaginable pain or dying slowly and hard. Surely that warrants a patent.

Let's say it does. But what about when a pharma company gets a patent on a life-saving drug that the public paid to develop, test and refine? Publicly funded work is presumptively in the public domain, from NASA R&D to the photos that park rangers shoot of our national parks. The public pays to produce this work, so it should belong to the public, right?

That was the deal – until Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980. Under Bayh-Dole, government-funded inventions are given away – to for-profit corporations, who get to charge us whatever they want to access the things we paid to make. The basis for this is a racist hoax called "The Tragedy Of the Commons," written by the eugenicist white supremacist Garrett Hardin and published by Science in 1968:

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/01/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-how-ecofascism-was-smuggled-into-mainstream-thought/

Hardin invented an imaginary history in which "commons" – things owned and shared by a community – are inevitably overrun by selfish assholes, a fact that prompts nice people to also overrun these commons, so as to get some value out of them before they are gobbled up by people who read Garrett Hardin essays.

Hardin asserted this as a historical fact, but he cited no instances in which it happened. But when the Nobel-winning Elinor Ostrom actually went and looked at how commons are managed, she found that they are robust and stable over long time periods, and are a supremely efficient way of managing resources:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/04/analytical-democratic-theory/#epistocratic-delusions

The reason Hardin invented an imaginary history of tragic commons was to justify enclosure: moving things that the public owned and used freely into private ownership. Or, to put it more bluntly, Hardin invented a pseudoscientific justification for giving away parks, roads and schools to rich people and letting them charge us to use them.

To arrive at this fantasy, Hardin deployed one of the most important analytical tools of modern economics: introspection. As Ely Devons put it: "If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn’t go and look at horses. They’d sit in their studies and say to themselves, ‘What would I do if I were a horse?’"

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/27/economism/#what-would-i-do-if-i-were-a-horse

Hardin's hoax swept from the fringes to the center and became received wisdom – so much so that by 1980, Senators Birch Bayh and Bob Dole were able to pass a law that gave away publicly funded medicine to private firms, because otherwise these inventions would be "overgrazed" by greedy people, denying the public access to livesaving drugs.

On September 21, the NIH quietly published an announcement of one of these pharmaceutical transfers, buried in a list of 31 patent assignments in the Federal Register:

https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2023-20487.pdf

The transfer in question is a patent for using T-cell receptors (TCRs) to treat solid tumors from HPV, one of the only patents for treating solid tumors with TCRs. The beneficiary of this transfer is Scarlet TCR, a Delaware company with no website or SEC filings and ownership shrouded in mystery:

https://www.bizapedia.com/de/scarlet-tcr-inc.html

One person who pays attention to this sort of thing is James Love, co-founder of Knowledge Ecology International, a nonprofit that has worked for decades for access to medicines. Love sleuthed out at least one person behind Scarlet TCR: Christian Hinrichs, a researcher at Rutgers who used to work at the NIH's National Cancer Institute:

https://www.nih.gov/research-training/lasker-clinical-research-scholars/tenured-former-scholars

Love presumes Hinrichs is the owner of Scarlet TCR, but neither the NIH nor Scarlet TCR nor Hinrichs will confirm it. Hinrichs was one of the publicly-funded researchers who worked on the new TCR therapy, for which he received a salary.

This new drug was paid for out of the public purse. The basic R&D – salaries for Hinrichs and his collaborators, as well as funding for their facilities – came out of NIH grants. So did the funding for the initial Phase I trial, and the ongoing large Phase II trial.

As David Dayen writes in The American Prospect, the proposed patent transfer will make Hinrichs a very wealthy man (Love calls it "generational wealth"):

https://prospect.org/health/2023-10-18-nih-how-to-become-billionaire-program/

This wealth will come by charging us – the public – to access a drug that we paid to produce. The public took all the risks to develop this drug, and Hinrichs stands to become a billionaire by reaping the rewards – rewards that will come by extracting fortunes from terrified people who don't want to die from tumors that are eating them alive.

The transfer of this patent is indefensible. The government isn't even waiting until the Phase II trials are complete to hand over our commonly owned science.

But there's still time. The NIH is about to get a new director, Monica Bertagnolli – Hinrichs's former boss – who will need to go before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for confirmation. Love is hoping that the confirmation hearing will present an opportunity to question Bertagnolli about the transfer – specifically, why the drug isn't being nonexclusively licensed to lots of drug companies who will have to compete to sell the cheapest possible version.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/19/solid-tumors/#t-cell-receptors

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

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quendiviner · 12 days ago

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okay. some fun aleena facts for you

studied biology for bachelor's, then moved to pharma and then ended up in cell biology again. originally went into biology because as a child she really loved plants and how they're used for different things. will tell you about plants if you let her.

three partners with two of whom she lives in a house with. loves decorating the house a lot.

hair is Always that kind of magenta (not counting possible grey hairs) due to some experimental hair color thing

she's toby's oldest friend. they met at mit when they were doing their bachelor's degree there + they were both, like, 14 when they first met....... so they bonded very well. they like to video call each other at least twice a month and send funny pictures to each other.

related to that - she was also in that one school project toby was also in, the skincare thing that then turned into that start up in miami. She's actually who invited it there after they met up when Toby got back from Baltimore all miserable and not-fully there. She thought it would make it feel better. She then also helps it get out of there asap.

Aleena also leaves the said start up quite soon after that and also returns to finish her studies. afterwards just hanged out in different r&d projects. ended up in glacier tear as a senior researcher at some point and stayed there

HAS TWO DOGS!!! I haven't decided what dogs exactly but I'm open to suggestions :^)

does not drink coffee EVER, always gets iced tea. her favorite is peach green tea. if there's some ice cubes left she'll eat those or just fill the cup with some other drink. hates lemons in teas

#coffee cup thoughts #oc thoughts tag #oc: aleena

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lord-squiggletits · 3 months ago

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People who draw Pharma with huge wings add +1 year to my life every time I see a B R O A D ass looking Pharma

#squiggposting #if his wings aren't a slapping hazard for every head in pharma's vicinity what's the point

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gland-pharma-limited · 2 years ago

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We have harnessed our R&D expertise in synthesizing complex molecules to produce complex injectables. Thus we are meeting the diverse injectable needs of the world with high-quality products.

#api r&d #pharma api r&d

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prettyflyshyguy · 10 months ago

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Anyway here's wonderwall. I'm trying to start the new year off strong. Already feel sad its been a week and I've barely accomplished this. But that's the kind of negative talk that's so 2023. I'm throwing it in the bin. We focusing on personal achievements only.

I've been writing tonight! It's been fun! I'm still trying to get into the groove and struggling with the age old issue of whenever I hit a 'blank' I just stop working on the project, opting to wait for the stroke of inspiration to hit. This isn't helpful, and means I don't work through the issue. So 2023. Fuck that noise.

I'm still building my confidence back after having it a bit crushed last year, so no ETA on the final chapter of the main C Virus Fic, but you'll probably see some other mini projects pop up. Less stressful, helps me practice for the big stuff.

Anyway the song "Talking in your Sleep" has had me at gunpoint for 2 hours and I'm really happy with this interaction so here's a taster under the cut.

Chris and Leon attend a meeting with a Big Pharma client post-incident cleanup and they can't handle the heat of corporate talk.

Something had felt off about the job from the minute he set boots on the ground outside the factory. Chris had assured him that it’d be smooth, he’d done it a hundred times before, there shouldn’t be any issues. It was a C-Virus outbreak for sure, but not the normal kind. Valhanian was working on vaccines and preventative medication, blockers for the immune system that could quickly and effectively obliterate the virus or prevent it from even gaining a hold on the system. The most common form was the standard strains that had a very similar effect on humans as the T-Virus did, which they were lead to believe was the main focus of the factory - manufacturing and R&D for the ‘zombie’ strains.

What they found waiting for them was most certainly not the standard C-Virus infected humans.

Chris had brushed it off at the time, claiming that with how volatile the virus was, he wasn’t surprised that something had gone wrong and there were chrysalid variants in the facility.

Nothing’s without risk, something must have gone wrong, it’s not like we haven’t handled this sort of thing before.

Leon knew that there was no way in hell that a company with that much money in the game of vaccines would fuck around and find out - risking everything in the process. But it wasn’t worth arguing with Chris, he insisted that it wasn’t his job to worry about the science team’s side of things and that ‘Rebecca will figure it out.’

Chris was ever the optimist on his good days. Leon had seen too much to trust any corporation that invested in the field of medicine. You don’t get fission without fusion, and anyone who claimed that advancements in bio-organic warfare had no links to advancements in medicine, was a fool or a liar. Most likely both.

Of course something went wrong on the job, sure he’d had a little ‘mutation’ incident, but Rebecca’s drugs worked a treat, they just took a while to fully kick in.

“I don’t know what this is or what you’re trying to do, we don’t employ BOWs, whatever you’re trying to claim is unfounded.”

No no no you dumbass, don’t give it to them Chris!

“Mr. Redfield I’m just being thorough. You’re no stranger to the industry, and I’m sure you understand we are very conscious and concerned about protecting our trade secrets. Incidents like this are of a high concern to us as the entire reason we brought the BSAA in to assist us was to stop a B.O.W incident.”

Chris glanced briefly at the BSAA staff seated around him, and Leon. Fear and panic in his eyes, crying for help silently. He knew who was in the photograph and could only lie about it for so long before the game was given away.

Leon cleared his throat, drawing the attention of the sharks.

“Ms Harker I can assure you that Chris is just as shocked as you are, and that the BSAA operates at the highest level of-”

“Thank you for your assurance, Mr Kennedy, but I believe you are not a member of the BSAA is that correct?” her full attention snapped to Leon, her eyes looked predatory.

“Yes, I’m temporarily assigned to assist them in operations regarding the C-Virus as I have first hand experience with it that has proven invaluable in us combatting further outbreaks.”

“I don’t doubt that Mr. Kennedy. I’m aware of your reputation and high standing. Our country has a lot to thank you for.”

He shivered. There was no kindness in her tone.

“I just wish to express my concerns, as the security footage doesn’t lie.”

Leon digged his fingers into his thigh, scrunching the fabric of the chinos, his hands hidden under the table.

“Trust is critical to any operation as I’m sure everyone in this room is well aware. How can we trust the BSAA after seeing this? How can you trust yourselves?”

Chris began to speak, being swiftly interrupted by Harker’s shrill tone.

“Have you considered that there may be individuals laying dormantly infected, unbeknownst to the world?

Leon bit down on his tongue.

“Perhaps there’s an infected individual sitting in this room with us right now.”

The colour drained from Chris’s face.

“Perhaps it's someone not within the BSAA.”

Leon felt the eyes of every member of the meeting shift to look at him.

#c virus au #thank u resident evil for always being comforting to return to #mwah #its like putting on your old but still comfy jacket and feeling content

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v0idspeak · 4 months ago

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Question about the Cyrin Story- I saw protusol mentioned in a poll, what is it?

Oop- didn't see this question for some reason, sorry about that.

So-

Protusol is a science-and-research company! It's been around for a long while now, and, while under its previous owner, was known for a handful of shady dealings.

Since then, though, its public image has been cleaned up, and it's developed into a pharma/R&D giant. Money flows in and out of the company by the millions (or maybe billions - hard to say), and new advances in pharmaceuticals and Cyrin research trickle out at an incredibly fast pace. It's also one of Havel's main sources of income!

The reason for that is incredibly simple: the company's main shareholder is one Tornis Maurier, the president of the country of Havel. When he inherited Protusol Labs from his father during the most recent war, he saw its potential, sullied by bad handling and, frankly, its awfully-handled PR department.

Say what you will about Tornis, but he knew how to turn a scientific venture around. It took barely a few months for him to cut ties (or did he simply hide them?) with less-than-tasteful contacts and old research facilities. Any of the facilities left on his birth continent were abandoned, or at least downsized considerably, and he focused on his new home instead.

Today, Protusol hires thousands across dozens upon dozens of well-organized research facilities. The company is so intertwined with the government that Protusol and the Corynen are basically synonymous by now - working at Protusol means working for the Corynen, and many Corynen jobs are connected to Protusol, at least tangentially.

The collusion should be enough to attract angry crowds and protests, but, really, the Corynen stopped a war that had been ravaging multiple countries and leaving children alone and hungry; Protusol had developed medicine the likes of which the world had never seen. No one could complain about that, right?

No one had, right?

Right?

Anyway yeah that's Protusol in a nutshell.

@wind-rider Got anything to add?

#Cyrin story #Cyrin #Protusol #Hello askbox #I forgot about Tumblr for a while haha oops #keep the questions a-flowing!

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lesbian-nautica · 2 years ago

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WELCOME TO THE ROBOT HUSBAND BATTLE ROYALE!

@novafire-is-thinking 's robot husband poll was amazing, but I think there is one way to improve it.

Make it more chaotic.

So instead of 1v1, we are putting everyone into groups of 10. (To make it easier for me, I just did it alphabetically) May the best husband win, links to each fight below!

ROUND ONE:

A: Afterburner v Air Raid v Alpha Trion v Ambulon v Astrotrain v Barricade v Beachcomber v Blackout v Blades v Blaster WINNER: BLADES

B: Blitzwing v Bluestreak v Blurr v Bonecrusher v Boulder v Brainstorm v Brawl v Brawn v Breakdown v Brimstone WINNER: BREAKDOWN

C: Broadside v Bulkhead v Bumblebee v Censere (Necrobot) v Cerebros v Chase v Cheetor v Chromedome v Cliffjumper v Cosmos WINNER: CHROMEDOME

D: Crankcase v Cyclonus v Dai Atlas v Dead End v Deathsaurus v Depth Charge v Dinobot v Dirge v Dominus Ambus v Doubledealer WINNER: CYCLONUS

E: Drag Strip v Dreadwing v Drift v Eject v Ferak v Fireflight v First Aid v Flatline v Fortress Maximus v Fracas WINNER: FIRST AID AND FORTRESS MAXIMUS WITH A TIE

F: Frenzy v Froid v Fulcrum v Gears v Grapple v Grimlock v Guzzle v Hardhead v Hardshell v Heatwave WINNER: GRIMLOCK

G: Helex v High Tide v Hoist v Hook v Hot Shot v Hound v Hubcap v Huffer v Impactor v Inferno WINNER: IMPACTOR

H: Jazz v Kaon v Kickback v Knockout v Lockdown v Long Haul v Lugnut v Maccadam v Meteorfire v Metroplex WINNER: JAZZ

I: Megatron v Mirage v Misfire v Mixmaster v Motormaster V Nemesis Prime v Nightbeat v Offroad v Optimus Primal v Optimus Prime WINNER: MISFIRE

J: Overlord v Perceptor v Pharma v Powerglide v Predaking v Prowl v Quickstrike v Ramjet v Rampage v Getaway because I accidentally forgot him earlier oops WINNER: PERCEPTOR

K: Ratchet v Rattrap v Ravage v Red Alert v Red Inferno v Rewind v Rhinox v Riptide v Rodimus Prime v Rumble WINNER: RODIMUS PRIME

L: Runabout v Runamuck v Rung v Scavenger v Scorponok v Scrapper v Seaspray v Sentinel Prime v Shockwave v Sideswipe WINNER: RUNG

M: Silverbolt v Skids v Sky-Byte v Skydive v Skyfire/Jetfire v Skyquake v Slingshot v Sludge v Slug v Smokescreen WINNER: SKIDS

N: Snarl v Soundblaster v Soundwave v Spinister v Springer v Star Saber v Starscream v Sunder v Sundor v Sunstorm WINNER: SOUNDWAVE

O: Sunstreaker v Swerve v Swindle v Swoop v Tailgate v Tarantulas v Tarn v Ten v Terrorsaur v Tesaurus WINNER: TAILGATE

P: Thrust v Thunderclash v Thundercracker v Thunderhoof v Thunderhowl v Tigatron v Topspin v Tracks v Trepan WINNER: THUNDERCRACKER

Q: Tyrest v Ultra Magnus/Minimus Ambus v Vox v Warpath v Waspinator v Wheeljack v Whirl v Wildrider v Windcharger v Wing WINNER: WHIRL

R for remembering late (aka the "hey what about-" round): Blast Off v Onslaught v Skywarp v Tripodeca v Toaster v Siren v Hot Rod v Jetfire v Galvatron v Vortex WINNER: SKYWARP

SEMIFINALS 1:

SEMIFINALS 2:

#robot husband poll #robot husband battle royale #transformers poll

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hasdrubal-gisco · 4 months ago

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not to be a pharma defender but "cost to manufacture" makes no sense in pharmacology when it has one of the most expensive and inefficient (on a dollar basis) r&d processes of all sectors

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soniez · 5 months ago

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India's Pharma Industry – The Leading Companies You Need to Know

India's pharmaceutical industry stands as a global powerhouse, contributing significantly to the world's supply of medicines and pharmaceutical products. The country's ability to produce high-quality, affordable medicines has earned it the title of "Pharmacy of the World." As the industry continues to grow and innovate, several companies have emerged as leaders in the market. For Centurion HealthCare Pvt. Ltd., understanding the landscape of the top pharma companies in India provides insights into the key players driving the industry's success.

The Rise of the Pharmaceutical Industry in India

The pharmaceutical industry in India has seen exponential growth over the past few decades. From generic drug manufacturing to complex biotechnological innovations, Indian pharma companies have made substantial contributions to global healthcare. This growth can be attributed to several factors, including a skilled workforce, robust research and development infrastructure, and supportive government policies.

Key Players in India's Pharma Industry

The landscape of the pharmaceutical industry in India is populated by numerous companies, each contributing to various segments of the market. Here are some of the top pharmaceutical companies in India that are leading the charge:

1. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

As the largest pharmaceutical company in India, Sun Pharma is renowned for its diverse product portfolio, including generics, branded generics, specialty medicines, and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). The company has a significant global presence and continues to expand its footprint through strategic acquisitions and partnerships.

2. Dr. Reddy's Laboratories

Dr. Reddy's is a major player in the global generic pharmaceutical market. Known for its strong focus on research and development, the company offers a wide range of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology products. Their commitment to quality and innovation has solidified their position as one of the best pharmaceutical companies in India.

3. Cipla Ltd.

Cipla has been at the forefront of providing affordable medicines for over eight decades. The company specializes in respiratory, cardiovascular, anti-retroviral, and anti-infective therapies. Cipla's dedication to healthcare accessibility and its significant contributions to global health initiatives make it a top pharmaceutical company in India.

4. Lupin Limited

Lupin is a leading pharmaceutical company known for its focus on complex generics and specialty drugs. The company's strong presence in both developed and emerging markets has earned it a place among the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in India. Lupin's investment in R&D and its broad therapeutic portfolio are key drivers of its success.

5. Aurobindo Pharma

Aurobindo Pharma is recognized for its extensive range of generic formulations and APIs. The company's robust manufacturing capabilities and strategic global presence have made it one of the top pharmaceutical companies in India. Aurobindo's commitment to innovation and quality continues to propel its growth.

6. Zydus Cadila

Zydus Cadila, a leading pharmaceutical company, offers a wide range of healthcare solutions, including small molecules, biologics, biosimilars, and vaccines. The company's integrated operations and strong research capabilities have established it as a key player in the pharma industry in India.

7. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals

Glenmark is a global research-led pharmaceutical company known for its focus on innovation in the fields of dermatology, respiratory, and oncology. The company's strong pipeline of new chemical entities and biosimilars underscores its position as one of the best pharmaceutical companies in India.

8. Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Torrent Pharma is a major player in the cardiovascular and central nervous system therapeutic areas. The company's strategic acquisitions and focus on niche segments have helped it become one of the top pharmaceutical companies in India. Torrent's commitment to quality and patient-centric approach is evident in its product offerings.

9. Biocon Ltd.

Biocon is India's largest biopharmaceutical company, specializing in biologics and biosimilars. The company's focus on affordable innovation and its significant contributions to chronic disease management make it a leader in the pharmaceutical industry in India. Biocon's global partnerships and strong R&D capabilities are key to its success.

10. Cadila Healthcare (Zydus)

Cadila Healthcare, also known as Zydus, is a prominent player in the Indian pharma industry, offering a wide range of healthcare solutions. The company's innovative approach and comprehensive product portfolio have positioned it among the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in India.

The Role of Pharma Manufacturing Companies in India

Pharma manufacturing companies in India play a crucial role in the global supply chain of medicines. These companies not only produce high-quality generics but also invest heavily in research and development to bring new and innovative drugs to the market. The efficiency and scale of Indian pharma manufacturing are key factors in the country's ability to provide affordable medicines worldwide.

Finding the Best Pharma Companies Near You

For those searching for "pharma companies near me," it's important to recognize the regional presence of leading pharmaceutical companies. Many top pharma companies in India have established manufacturing and research facilities in various parts of the country, ensuring widespread access to their products and services.

Centurion HealthCare Pvt. Ltd. – A Leading Player in the Industry

Centurion HealthCare Pvt. Ltd. is an emerging name in the Indian pharmaceutical landscape. As a medicine manufacturing company in India, Centurion HealthCare is dedicated to providing high-quality pharmaceutical products across various therapeutic categories. The company's commitment to innovation, quality, and patient care positions it among the best pharma companies in India.

The Future of the Pharmaceutical Industry in India

The future of the pharmaceutical industry in India looks promising, with continued growth driven by innovation, increasing healthcare needs, and expanding global reach. Indian pharma companies are expected to play a pivotal role in addressing global health challenges, developing new treatments, and ensuring the availability of affordable medicines.

Conclusion

India's pharmaceutical industry is a dynamic and rapidly evolving sector, with numerous companies leading the way in innovation, quality, and global healthcare contributions. From established giants like Sun Pharma and Dr. Reddy's to emerging leaders like Centurion HealthCare Pvt. Ltd., the top pharmaceutical companies in India are making significant strides in improving healthcare outcomes worldwide.

As the industry continues to grow, these companies will remain at the forefront of pharmaceutical advancements, ensuring that India retains its position as a global leader in medicine production and innovation. Whether you are looking for the best pharma company in India or seeking reliable pharmaceutical companies in India, the landscape is rich with options that exemplify excellence and commitment to health.

For Centurion HealthCare Pvt. Ltd., being part of this esteemed group of pharma companies in India is a testament to its dedication to quality, innovation, and patient care. As the industry moves forward, Centurion HealthCare is poised to continue its growth and contribute to the global healthcare landscape, solidifying its place among the best pharmaceutical companies in India.

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