In what it calls a “multi-pronged” response to the coronavirus outbreak, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) announces that unit Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies has initiated activities to develop a vaccine against 2019-nCoV, the virus causing the current contagion.
The vaccine program will leverage Janssen’s AdVac and PER.C6 technologies that provide the ability to rapidly upscale production, the same technologies behind its vaccines for Ebola, Zika, RSV and HIV.
The company’s efforts will include a review of known pathways in coronavirus pathophysiology to determine if previously tested drugs can help patients survive infection and reduce the severity of disease in non-lethal cases.
It has also donated 300 boxes of HIV med Prezcobix (darunavir/cobicistat) to the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University for use in research to support efforts in finding a solution against 2019-nCoV. An additional 50 boxes have been provided to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention for laboratory-based investigations (drug-screening for antiviral properties against 2019-nCoV).
Selecta Biosciences -5.7% on holder offering filing
Of those, 37.6M shares are presently issued and outstanding, and 31.33M shares are issuable upon exercise of warrants. Shares outstanding at last report were 85.83M.
The company isn’t selling any shares and won’t receive any proceeds, but may receive proceeds from the exercise of warrants.
A list of selling stockholders includes entities associated with Vivo Capital (holders of 8.62M shares), the Mangrove Partners Master Fund (7.88M shares), TAS Partners (7.46M shares) and entities associated with EcoR1 Capital (6.897M shares).
Stratus provides video remote language interpretation services for the healthcare industry.
It surpassed $100M in revenue in 2019, and based on Q4, its 12-month annualized run rate was about $119M of revenue and $34M in adjusted EBITDA.
The deal is expected to be immediately accretive to AMN’s adjusted EPS.
It’s expected to be funded by existing credit and cash on hand, and should close by early March.
AMN is down 2.2% after hours.
Cerus prices upsized stock offering
Cerus (CERS +2.5%) announces that it has priced its upsized $55M (from $50M) public offering of common stock but does not disclose the actual price ($4.15?).
Underwriters’ over-allotment is an additional $8.25M of stock. Closing date is January 28.
CVS Health debuts $0 patient cost option for diabetics
CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) announces that CVS Caremark, its pharmacy benefit manager, is now offering diabetic members a new solution, RxZERO, that enables employers and health plan sponsors to leverage formulary and plan design approaches to offer all categories of diabetes medications, including meds for type 2 diabetes, with no co-pays for their members without raising costs for the plan sponsor or increasing premiums or deductibles for all plan members.
CVS Caremark says the average out-of-pocket cost per year for diabetes drugs for members is $467.24.
