U.S. government partners with Texas to build three mass vaccination sites

 The federal government is partnering with the state of Texas to build three mass vaccination sites, following last week’s announcement that it would build such sites in California, federal health officials said during a Wednesday media briefing.

Each site will be able to administer 10,000 shots per day, according to Jeffrey Zients, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator, and should begin giving the shots by Feb. 22.

The sites will be in the Dallas and Houston areas and will be operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), according to a state news release. One site will be AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home to the Dallas Cowboys.

The federal government also plans to open vaccination hubs in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens on Feb. 24, each of which will be able to administer about 3,000 shots a day, Zients said in an announcement with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Both the New York sites will receive special allocations of vaccines from the federal government, and are intended to benefit Black and Latino New Yorkers who have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic, Cuomo said.

Last week, the state of California said it was partnering with FEMA to open mass vaccination sites in Los Angeles and Oakland as a part of a pilot program started by President Joe Biden’s administration.

Both states said the program’s goal was to make sure people in underserved communities have access to vaccines.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-whitehouse/u-s-government-partnering-with-texas-to-build-three-mass-vaccination-sites-idUSKBN2AA29C

AbbVie: Caribou Biosciences to Collaborate on CAR-T Cell Products

 AbbVie Inc. on Wednesday said it signed a collaboration and license agreement with privately held Caribou Biosciences Inc. to develop new chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR-T, cell therapies.

The North Chicago, Ill., biopharmaceutical company said it would use Caribou's CRISPR genome-editing and cell-therapy technologies to research and develop two new CAR-T cell therapies directed to targets specified by AbbVie.

AbbVie said Caribou would receive $40 million in an up-front cash payment and equity investment. Caribou would also be eligible for up to $300 million in development, regulatory and launch milestone payments, along with royalties on sales.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/ABBVIE-INC-12136589/news/AbbVie-Caribou-Biosciences-to-Collaborate-on-CAR-T-Cell-Products-32407325/

Teva Pharm in talks to co-produce COVID-19 vaccines: CEO

 Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is in talks with COVID-19 vaccine makers to co-produce some shots, chief executive Kare Schultz told Reuters on Wednesday.

Schultz said Teva, the world's largest generics drugmaker, both approached and was approached by vaccine makers. It declined to name the companies with which it was in discussions.

"We do have some discussions with originators of the original vaccines. We have not come to any conclusions," Schultz said after the drugmaker issued fourth-quarter financial results.

"In principle, we are positive towards contributing by manufacturing some of those vaccines that either have been approved or are just about to be approved," he said, declining to elaborate.

Governments around the world are racing to access vaccines and inoculate their citizens against the coronavirus. The urgency of doing so has increased with the discovery of new variants to the virus that have been shown to reduce the efficacy of some vaccines.

Vaccine supplies are limited due to production constraints for vaccine makers, including Pfizer Inc, and its German partner BioNTech, as well as Moderna and AstraZeneca Plc.

To help to increase supply, several pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis and Sanofi, have agreed to allocate some manufacturing to their industry peers.

Teva has been a significant partner with Pfizer in Israel's successful inoculation rollout. Its SLE logistics division handles all the vaccines in an underground facility near Israel’s main airport. Thirty large freezers set to minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94 Fahrenheit) can hold 5 million doses.

SLE repackages them into bundles as small as 100 doses and these are delivered to about 400 vaccine centers.

Teva has 61 global manufacturing sites, although Schultz said it planned to close or divest 11 of those.

More than half of eligible Israelis - about 3.5 million people - have now been fully or partially vaccinated. Older and at-risk groups, the first to be inoculated, are seeing a dramatic drop in illnesses.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/NOVARTIS-AG-9364983/news/Teva-Pharm-in-talks-to-co-produce-COVID-19-vaccines-CEO-says-32408521/

Health Care Up As WallStreetBets Traders Target Tilray

 Health-care companies rose as Reddit-inspired speculators targeted marijuana stocks.

Shares of Tilray, a cannabis producer with operations in several countries, shot up by more than 50% after the stock was touted on WallStreetBets. Rival Canopy also gained.

The World Health Organization said governments should continue rolling out AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, including in countries battling a new strain of the coronavirus that was first detected in South Africa.

Biotechnology startup BigHat Biosciences raised $19 million in fresh capital to pursue its goal of using artificial intelligence to gain an edge in developing antibody drugs.

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/latest/Health-Care-Up-As-WallStreetBets-Traders-Target-Tilray-Health-Care-Roundup--32411754/

ALX Oncology started at Buy by Wainwright

 With a Buy rating, HC Wainwright & Co. initiated coverage on ALX Oncology Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:ALXO). The price target seems to have been set at $100.00 for ALX Oncology Holdings. In the third quarter, ALX Oncology Holdings earned $0.31. The stock has a 52-week-high of $117.45 and a 52-week-low of $29.06. At the end of the last trading period, ALX Oncology Holdings closed at $82.18.

https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/upgrades/21/02/19588150/benzingas-top-ratings-upgrades-downgrades-for-february-10-2021

Piper starts Catalyst Biosciences at Overweight

 With an Overweight rating, Piper Sandler initiated coverage on Catalyst Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:CBIO). The price target seems to have been set at $15.00 for Catalyst Biosciences. For the third quarter, Catalyst Biosciences had an EPS of $0.73, compared to year-ago quarter EPS of $1.06. 

https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/upgrades/21/02/19588150/benzingas-top-ratings-upgrades-downgrades-for-february-10-2021

Early clinical data provided wild ride for investors in 2020

 Biotech stock volatility has increased markedly in the past couple of years, a separate Evaluate Vantage analysis reveals today, with share price jumps in reaction to clinical data becoming especially dramatic from 2019. Digging further into the data shows that investors have been responding with growing enthusiasm to results on projects of all stages, although it is notable how swings on phase I data really took off last year. Perhaps this can be partly explained by the maturing of cell and gene therapy research, where early data are taken as strong proof of concept. Or maybe it is simply a signal that biotech truly is enjoying a bull market – some of the more egregious valuation gains certainly defy logic. Examples of those spectacular phase I surges last year include Curis’s 355% jump on early signals with its Irak4 inhibitor in leukaemia, and two hikes for Adaptimmune. Confirmation of long overdue progress prompted a 200% jump at the start of the year, which was followed up with Asco data in May, and another 128% rise. The message for investors seems to be: play the phase I data for the big gains. 

https://www.evaluate.com/vantage/articles/news/snippets/early-clinical-data-provided-wild-ride-investors-2020

The coloured boxes represent the middle quartiles of share price reaction, the whisker lines show maximum values, excluding outliers.