COVID-19 data

• Over six months after the first COVID-19 case was reported in the United States, the country’s death toll surpassed 150,000 on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Two-thirds of U.S. states experienced rising case counts over the past week, with Florida (73,000), California (67,000) and Texas (57,000) fueling the surge as the United States administers more than 750,000 tests per day.

• The White House’s coronavirus task force placed 21 states — Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin — in the “red zone,” meaning they each had more than 100 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past week, according to a report sent to state officials and obtained by a media outlet.

Vaccines and treatments

• Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. launched phase 3 trials for their experimental coronavirus vaccines, with the first participants receiving shots Monday and plans to enroll 30,000 people in each study at about 90 U.S. sites for Moderna and 120 domestic and foreign sites for Pfizer. Johnson & Johnson delivered its first COVID-19 vaccine doses to human participants Monday as well, with the company eyeing September to launch phase 3 trials.

• Ahead of human trials for its coronavirus vaccine, Moderna said it received $472 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to support its efforts, bringing the total amount of funding provided by BARDA to the drugmaker to $955 million. Moderna, which was reportedly targeted by hackers connected to China’s government in an effort to steal the company’s data, said it is on schedule to produce about 500 million doses of its vaccine annually, and potentially 1 billion doses, starting next year.

• Sanofi SA and GlaxoSmithKline PLC said they will receive up to $2.1 billion through the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed program to develop their joint COVID-19 vaccine, which will be tested on humans in September, and deliver 100 million doses. The agreement includes an option for the United States to purchase an extra 500 million doses, while Sanofi and GSK said they’re aiming to produce 1 billion doses per year.

• The Food and Drug Administration is considering emergency use authorization for antibody-rich plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients, according to people familiar with the matter, potentially paving the way for quicker and more widespread access to one of the more encouraging coronavirus treatments. A decision could come as soon as this week, the people said, and if approved, it would make coronavirus convalescent plasma the second COVID-19 treatment to earn the FDA designation, following the Gilead Sciences Inc. antiviral drug remdesivir.

Earnings

• Pfizer’s second-quarter profit fell 32 percent, to $3.43 billion from $5.05 billion in the year-ago period, as the pharmaceutical giant saw demand for some of its drugs dip amid the pandemic. Revenue declined 11 percent, to $11.8 billion from $13.26 billion year over year, though the company bested Wall Street projections of $11.5 billion and elevated its own 2020 revenue outlook to between $48.6 billion and $50.6 billion, up from earlier guidance of an estimated $48.5 billion to $50.5 billion.

• Demand for its diabetes drug Trulicity fueled a 6.4 percent jump in second-quarter profit for Eli Lilly and Co., with net income growing to $1.41 billion from $1.33 billion during the year-ago period. Eli Lilly, which is developing an experimental COVID-19 treatment, also attributed its profit growth to investments in securities, which included two companies that had strong initial public offerings during the second quarter.

• Lower medical costs from postponed care because of the coronavirus pandemic boosted Cigna Corp.’s earnings, with the insurer reporting second-quarter net income of $1.75 billion compared with $1.41 billion over the same period in 2019. Revenue rose 1.2 percent to $39.27 billion, besting analyst projections of $37.87 billion.

• Citing pandemic-induced disruptions to health care systems that led to a reduction in the prescribing of its drugs, Gilead reported a second-quarter loss of $3.34 billion, compared with $1.88 billion in profit during the year-ago period, as revenue fell 10 percent to $5.14 billion. But Gilead expects sales of its coronavirus treatment remdesivir to boost 2020 revenue by up to $2.8 billion, with the company now projecting full-year earnings of $23.3 billion to $25 billion, a rise from its earlier forecast of $21.8 billion to $22.2 billion.

Industry

• A White House meeting in which leading pharmaceutical executives were set to discuss an unreleased executive order on drug pricing that President Donald Trump signed last month was scrapped, according to five industry sources familiar with the discussion, three of whom cited the refusal of top drug lobbies to send any members as the reason for the meeting’s cancellation. Drugmakers and some patient groups have panned the so-called most-favored-nations rule spelled out in Trump’s order, which would require health officials to deliver a plan connecting Medicare payments for specific drugs to lower costs paid overseas.

• After neglecting to enforce an existing contract with a leading medical manufacturer for ventilators and postponing negotiations for at least a month, the Trump administration overpaid by up to $500 million to acquire tens of thousands of the devices, according to documents and internal emails obtained by House Democrats and shared with a media outlet. The Trump administration signed a $643.5 million deal in April with Philips Respironics, which according to Strategic National Stockpile contractual terms is not obligated to deliver most of the 10,000 ventilators until September 2022, though the Health and Human Services Department said it expects the bulk of the roughly 43,000 devices it negotiated via a second contract to be delivered by the end of 2020.

• The photography company Eastman Kodak Co. was awarded a $765 million, first-of-its-kind loan from the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. under the Defense Production Act to aid its transition into producing ingredients used in several generic drugs, including hydroxychloroquine, the antimalarial drug Trump has championed as a coronavirus treatment.

Studies

• New research published in JAMA Pediatrics found that children infected with COVID-19 have at least equivalent amounts of the virus in their upper respiratory tract as adults who contracted the disease, further complicating the national debate over reopening schools. The small study, which did not identify the race or sex of participants or note if they had underlying medical conditions, also found that in children younger than 5, their noses and throats could host 100 times as much of the coronavirus as adults.

• A new blood test was able to differentiate people with Alzheimer’s and those who did not have the disease with accuracy rates between 89 and 98 percent, several studies unveiled at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference showed.

• The Senate is in session. The House canceled its August recess until coronavirus relief legislation is passed.

• Several health care companies will report earnings this week, including McKesson Corp. and Tenet Healthcare Corp. on Monday; Mallinckrodt PLC on Tuesday; Moderna Inc., CVS Health Corp., AmerisourceBergen Corp., Humana Inc. and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Wednesday; and Bristol Myers Squibb Co. and Mylan NV on Thursday.

• Axios is hosting a virtual event Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. on how hospitals have been responding to the coronavirus pandemic, featuring the chief executives of K Health Inc. and Atrium Health and the founder of FemInEm.

• On Wednesday at 1 p.m., Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and The New England Journal of Medicine are holding an event titled “When Public Health Means Business,” featuring an interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci and a panel moderated by CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

1) How to Test More People for Coronavirus Without Actually Needing More Tests
Quoctrung Bui et al., The New York Times

2) As Covid Has Become a Red-State Problem, Too, Have Attitudes Changed?
Robert Gebeloff, The New York Times

3) FDA Nears Decision Authorizing Covid-19 Treatment With Convalescent Plasma
Amy Dockser Marcus and Thomas M. Burton, The Wall Street Journal

4) Drugmakers refuse to attend White House meeting after Trump issues executive orders on costs
Sarah Owermohle, Politico

5) As Trump called on states to reopen, a federal report urged 21 ‘red zone’ states to impose more restrictions
The New York Times

6) Scientists get closer to blood test for Alzheimer’s disease
Marilynn Marchione, The Associated Press

7) We asked 20 medical experts whether they’re sending their own kids back to school. Here’s what they had to say
Christina Farr, CNBC

8) Quest says FDA cleared new ‘lab method’ that will cut coronavirus testing delays
Will Feuer, CNBC

9) Wearing masks might help you avoid major illness even if you get coronavirus, experts say
Rong-Gong Lin II, The Washington Post

10) 16 states set single-day coronavirus case records last week
Orion Rummler, Axios