With rumors swirling about a potential buyout of biotech Acceleron and its lead PAH drug sotatercept, market watchers have been keeping close tabs on industry movers and shakers due up for an expensive bolt-on. According to a new report, it appears Merck may be the one.

Merck is in “advanced talks” on a deal to acquire Cambridge, MA-based Acceleron in what previous reports pegged as a potential $11 billion buyout, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. A deal could come as early as this week, according to the Journal.

Pfizer and BioNTech said Tuesday they submitted to FDA positive data from a Phase II/III trial of their Covid-19 vaccine in children aged 5 to less than 12 years old.

A formal EUA submission for the vaccine in these children is expected to follow “in the coming weeks,” the companies said in a statement.

The trial of 2,268 healthy participants aged 5 to less than 12 years old showed the vaccine was safe and elicited robust neutralizing antibody responses using a two-dose regimen of 10 μg doses, which is one-third the dose that’s administered to adults.

Sanofi is throwing in the towel on mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines.

The French drugmaker will halt development on its unmodified mRNA Covid-19 shot despite what it said were positive Phase I/II results, a spokesperson told Endpoints News on Tuesday morning. Sanofi said the reason it’s stopping the Covid-19 mRNA program, developed in partnership with its new $3.2 billion acquisition Translate Bio, is because the market is too crowded.

FDA’s top vaccine official Peter Marks is pulling the plug on a months-long transition for two top career vaccine officials who abruptly called it quits in late August.

Marion Gruber, director of the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research & Review and 32-year veteran of the agency, her deputy director Phil Krause, announced their departures and then raised concerns with Covid-19 booster shots ahead of and during a recent Covid-19 booster vaccine advisory committee.

As the industry goes through a boom, Big Pharma’s CEOs seem to have realized one thing above the rest: It’s time to reward the people doing the leg work.

KPMG, a Big Four accounting network, has compiled a business confidence report for pharma CEOs for the past few years, and while 2020’s report had top executives soul-searching for answers and predictions amidst a chaotic time, it appears that some normalcy, coupled with the skyrocketing growth of the industry, has restored confidence levels at the top.