Mod­er­na’s rapid fire de­vel­op­ment of its huge­ly suc­cess­ful mR­NA vac­cine for Covid saved lives, changed the vac­cine in­dus­try for­ev­er and made CEO Stéphane Ban­cel a bil­lion­aire. But per­haps the sweet­est re­ward came this week, when Ban­cel was named a Cheva­lier — ba­si­cal­ly knight­ed — by the pres­i­dent of France.

Pres­ti­gious Eu­ro­pean ti­tles like this are rare in bio­phar­ma, but not un­known, as As­traZeneca’s Mene Pan­ga­los could tell you af­ter be­ing knight­ed by the Queen, named on the hon­ors list in 2020 for his con­tri­bu­tion to sci­ence.

Born in Mar­seilles with an MBA from Har­vard, Ban­cel un­abashed­ly vowed to ei­ther go big at Mod­er­na, rais­ing what were then huge sums for his start­up, or fold the tent and go home. Now run­ning a $53 bil­lion phar­ma com­pa­ny, he was stung re­peat­ed­ly by ear­ly skep­tics who ques­tioned the com­pa­ny’s cul­ture, its sci­ence and Ban­cel’s brash per­son­al­i­ty.

Ban­cel still gets lots of crit­i­cism and the rest of the pipeline is far from as­sured, as noth­ing is in this busi­ness. But get­ting the high­est hon­or in France has to count as a mo­ment to cel­e­brate lead­ing a land­mark ac­com­plish­ment. He earned that.

We’re hon­ored that our CEO Stéphane Ban­cel was named Cheva­lier (Knight) of the Lé­gion d’Hon­neur, the high­est French dis­tinc­tion for mil­i­tary and civ­il ac­com­plish­ments, by Mr Fran­cis Wahl on be­half of @Em­manuel­Macron, Pres­i­dent of France. pic.twit­ter.com/ay­bqJJIRzJ

— Mod­er­na (@mod­er­na_tx) May 18, 2022

As the House-passed bill to cap the monthly price of insulin at $35 nationwide makes its way for a Senate vote soon, Sanofi announced Wednesday morning that beginning next month it will cut the monthly price of its insulins for uninsured Americans to $35, down from $99 previously.

The announcement from Sanofi, which allows the uninsured to buy one or multiple Sanofi insulins (Lantus, Insulin Glargine U-100, Toujeo, Admelog, and Apidra) at $35 for a 30-day supply effective July 1, follows House passage (232-193) of the monthly cap in March, with just 12 Republicans voting in favor of the measure.

As Astellas continues its drive to build out its gene therapy portfolio and capabilities, a subsidiary of the Japanese pharma company has entered into a collaboration with a little-known Pittsburgh biotech.

Astellas-owned Mitobridge and Generian Pharmaceuticals announced on Wednesday that they will work together in a new deal for “undruggable” protein targets. Generian will net an undisclosed upfront payment and could get up to $180 million in milestones, should anything from its platform prove successful, as well as single-digit royalties on global net sales.

Three months separated from a disappointing readout of its Covid-19 vaccine, Icosavax is back with what it calls positive topline data for a different VLP vaccine candidate — although investors aren’t impressed.

IVX-121, a vaccine candidate for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), appeared to generate “robust” immune responses among both young and older adults, as measured by neutralizing antibodies, and appeared generally well-tolerated, Icosavax reported.