Biogen gets ready to break its silence

Who was diagnosed with Covid-19 at Biogen and are they okay?

How are the company and its workers recovering from the superspreading event there? And, by the way, what’s the status of the aducanumab submission to the FDA?

All these questions and more should be answered on Wednesday morning when Biogen holds a conference call in conjunction with first-quarter earnings. This will be the first time since early March that investors will hear extended remarks from Chief Executive Michel Vounatsos, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Cappelo and R&D Chief Al Sandrock.

There will be a lot to learn, as STAT's Adam Feuerstein notes, and biotech investors will be listening.

From vibrators to antibody tests

A tiny, floundering peddler of vibrators, erectile dysfunction pills, and testosterone sprays has seen its share price skyrocket lately. Aytu Bioscience has hit the Covid-19 goldmine, reselling coronavirus antibody tests made in China. But its success may be short-lived, STAT’s Adam Feuerstein writes.

“It’s true that Aytu is taking advantage of the situation and it’s helped the stock price, but I also believe they’re trying to do the right thing,” an Aytu insider told STAT. “The problem with the coronavirus antibody test is that the market is going to collapse. It’s lucrative now, but it won’t be for long.”

Pharma's image is moving in the right direction

The pandemic has given the pharma industry a chance to rehabilitate its image — riding in as white knights with the promise of vaccines and antivirals. However, even before the novel coronavirus raged through the globe, the industry’s battered image was actually on the upswing, STAT’s Ed Silverman writes.

A new survey found that 46% of patient advocacy groups thought that drug makers had developed an “excellent” or “good” reputation last year — up from 41% the year previous. That’s the best pharma’s done since 2011.

The NIH director on Covid-19

The chief of the NIH hasn’t graced the campus with his presence for more than a month. But Francis Collins says he's toiling harder than he ever has — working 17-hour days from his home to make sure the $39 billion biomedical research agency keeps vital work going during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a wide-ranging interview with STAT’s Lev Facher, Collins shares his thoughts on the WHO, the government, and Tony Fauci.

“In the current climate where everything is polarized, people are quickly able to get a bit cynical, to maybe not notice just what a dedicated team of experts exist in these various places,” Collins said. “And now we’re all a team together, and we aim to do what we can to try to save lives as fast as we can.”

Placebo during pandemic

Clinical trials testing drugs for Covid-19 have been tricky. Drugs like remdesivir have been given under terms of compassionate use, and hydroxychloroquine has been used widely thanks in large part to a higher-up’s “hunch.” There are randomized, controlled trials in the making — but there’s still an open question as to whether there’s room for placebo cohorts during pandemic.

So we asked whether, if hospitalized with Covid-19, would you agree to being in a placebo-controlled study? Turns out, two-thirds of our respondents would volunteer for an RCT if infected with the novel coronavirus — helping affirm, perhaps, that rigorous science still has a role to play in the search for Covid-19 treatments.