Novartis inks 3rd COVID-19 production pact, this time for Roche's arthritis med Actemra

Novartis wasn’t kidding when it said it wanted to help with the global COVID-19 fight earlier this year. The company racked up back-to-back manufacturing pacts with Pfizer-BioNTech and CureVac, and, now, it’s taking the battle to the therapeutic front.

Novartis has penned an initial deal with Roche to reserve active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) capacity for the company’s rheumatoid arthritis med Actemra, which has run the gamut of COVID-19 trials over the past year—some successful and others not.