The voluntary withdrawal of the license for the UK major's COVID-19 vaccine is due to a surplus of available updated jabs from other companies that target new variants and is not connected to the mis- and disinformation being peddled on the internet and elsewhere on very rare adverse events.

Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty toppled after recording the highest ever annual sales for a pharmaceutical in 2022, while Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic climbed rapidly. But Merck & Co’s immuno-oncology blockbuster Keytruda was secure in the number one spot in 2023 as COVID-19 receded.

Before J&J’s former chief data scientist Najat Khan moved to Recursion, she talked to the Pink Sheet about how AI is transforming trials and driving collaboration between industry and regulators.

Emerging Company Profile: The eight-year-old vaccine firm is planning clinical trials in the Philippines and Brazil to see how its synthetic viral peptide vaccine technology stands up against coronaviruses and dengue fever.