America’s Fourth Favorite Company Is Moderna; Pfizer Is Seventh

Axios: Moderna Is Americans' Third-Favorite Company This Year 
America's affections have shifted away from the companies that helped us manage pandemic life and toward the vaccine manufacturers that are helping to end it. Moderna and Pfizer shot up the ranks this year in the Axios/Harris 100, our annual survey of corporate reputations. Moderna is Americans' third-favorite company this year, and Pfizer came in at seventh — up from No. 61 a year ago. (Baker, 5/13)

In other pharmaceutical and biotech news —

Stat: Sanofi Accused Of Destroying Company E-Mails Tied To Zantac Recalls
As litigation proceeds over the Zantac heartburn pill and a possible carcinogen, a court filing contends that Sanofi (SNY) destroyed countless employee emails tied to the 2019 recall of the widely used medicine. The “widespread destruction” has delayed the proceedings and could make it more difficult for consumers to prove Sanofi and other manufacturers knew their medicines could produce high levels of NDMA over time, according to a document filed by lawyers who represent more than 70,000 people who filed claims in federal court. (Silverman, 5/12)

Stat: A Clinical Trial Coordinator Is Indicted For Falsifying Data In A Glaxo Study
A former study coordinator at a company hired to run a clinical trial of a GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) asthma medication has been indicted for falsifying data, the fourth individual to run afoul of authorities in connection with the research. The employee, Jessica Palacio, 34, worked at Unlimited Medical Research, which is based in Miami and was one of several companies tapped to help with a study designed to assess the safety and effectiveness of Advair Diskus for children between 4 and 11 years old, according to court documents. Glaxo had hired Parexel, a clinical research organization, to coordinate the trial. (Silverman, 5/12)

Stat: Fibrogen’s Data Scandal Came With Questions. It's Time For Answers
Fibrogen is reeling from the worst case of data manipulation in years, but six weeks after the scandal broke, the drug maker still hasn’t explained why or how it happened, or identify the people responsible. On a conference call Monday, Fibrogen CEO Enrique Conterno reiterated his “confidence” in the drug maker’s experimental anemia treatment, a pill called roxadustat. But how can anyone — investors, physicians, regulators – trust a company that spent nearly two years touting cardiovascular safety data that turns out to have been falsified? (Feuerstein, 5/13)

Stat: Amazon Pharmacy Exec Outlines Company’s Strategy For Prescription Drugs
Amazon’s objectives for its nascent pharmacy business are straightforward: “better selection, better convenience, and better prices,” according to TJ Parker, the vice president of pharmacy at the company. “It really is the Amazon playbook,” he said during a Wednesday panel at STAT’s Health Tech Summit. (Sheridan, 5/12)

NPR: Neural Interface Lets Man Type On Computer By Imagining Handwriting
An experimental device that turns thoughts into text has allowed a man who was left paralyzed by an accident to construct sentences swiftly on a computer screen. The man was able to type with 95% accuracy just by imagining he was handwriting letters on a sheet of paper, a team reported Wednesday in the journal Nature. "What we found, surprisingly, is that [he] can type at about 90 characters per minute," says Krishna Shenoy of Stanford University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. (Hamilton, 5/12)

Stat: Measuring Blood Sugar In Real Time Is A Game Changer For Patients
Kylene Redmond and Deb Foerster both are converts to their continuous glucose monitors, quarter-size devices that measure their blood sugar in real time so they can adjust their diet, their activity, and the medications they take to manage their diabetes. The automated sensors give both women feedback they can use to better control their disease and manage their daily lives, they said Wednesday at the STAT Health Tech Summit, making the devices a bellwether for other wearables beyond diabetes that are gaining traction in both consumer and clinical markets. (Cooney, 5/12)

Stat: Can New Tools Better Predict Success For A Novel Scoliosis Surgery? 
Mia Schloegel was 11 when they found the curve in her spine. She was at her yearly pediatrician’s visit when her uncle — also her doctor — had her lean over, in a standard childhood check for scoliosis. “He noticed I had kind of a hump on one side and not the other,” said Schloegel, a sign of the rib cage rotation that often occurs when the spine is curved side-to-side. At her uncle’s urging, she and her mother went to get an X-ray at a Kansas City hospital that same day. (Palmer, 5/13)

The Washington Post: Some Consumer-Friendly Air Purifiers Destroy The Coronavirus, And They Have FDA Certification To Prove It
Scribner’s Catskill Lodge in Hunter, N.Y., was one in a nationwide sea of hotel establishments to temporarily close last year when the pandemic wiped out tourism and travel. Between mid-March and June, the hotel’s managers did what many other closed hospitality establishments did — focused on a reopening strategy involving deep cleanings, temperature checks and other coronavirus-related safety precautions. As shutdown restrictions eased, the hotel reopened in time for summer travelers, but rooms were held vacant for 48 hours between guests. Each room has built-in cooling systems, and staff would turn the fans on full blast, hoping to send stray respiratory droplets out the window before the next vacationer was set to arrive. (Brown, 5/11)

In updates on the opioid trial in West Virginia —

Charleston Gazette-Mail: Judge OKs Use Of Opioid Data In Court Ahead Of Testimony From Drug Company Exec
A federal judge in Charleston agreed to conditionally admit opioid pill data analysis into evidence Wednesday, opening the door wide for Huntington and Cabell County attorneys to present their case alleging drug distributors caused the opioid crisis. The ruling was made after an energetic and long effort by distributors’ attorneys to block the analysis ahead of testimony from Chris Zimmerman, a senior vice president for AmerisourceBergen Drug Co. When Zimmerman took the stand, he quibbled with Cabell County attorney Paul Farrell Jr. over the word “duty,” stating that he did not believe his company had a duty to report or stop suspicious orders of opioids. It was more of an agreement, he said. (Hessler, 5/12)