Aim­mune wins ap­proval for peanut im­munother­a­py, charges 10k+

The FDA has ap­proved the first treat­ment for peanut al­ler­gy, al­though it comes with some con­tro­ver­sy.

Un­like most of the con­tro­ver­sial drugs that come be­fore the FDA, the bulk of ques­tions don’t cen­ter around this drug’s ef­fec­tive­ness or side ef­fects.

Pal­forzia, de­vel­oped by Aim­mune, has been shown to pre­vent the most se­vere re­ac­tions from ex­po­sure to small amounts of peanuts. In a Phase III tri­al, chil­dren giv­en es­ca­lat­ing dos­es of the drug were then giv­en 600 mg peanut pro­tein — about 2 peanuts — had a 67% chance of avoid­ing a se­vere re­ac­tion. For the place­bo pa­tients, the fig­ure was 4%.

Jayson Dal­las Aim­mune

“The goal — step 1 in terms of ther­a­py — is to be able to treat a child to the point you can say, if that child goes in­to the com­mu­ni­ty and ac­ci­den­tal­ly gets ex­posed to a peanut some­where, they’re not go­ing to have a life-threat­en­ing event,” Aim­mune CEO Jayson Dal­las told End­points News in an in­ter­view at the JP Mor­gan con­fer­ence ear­li­er this month.

“They may have a no re­ac­tion at all, they may have a lit­tle tin­gling, but they’re not go­ing to be at risk.”

The FDA ad­vi­so­ry com­mit­tee point­ed out that this wasn’t ide­al — you can’t eat a peanut but­ter sand­wich and a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of the pa­tients couldn’t even eat the 2 peanuts  — and not­ed the ad­verse re­ac­tions some had to the pill. But large­ly, they agreed it was a sub­stan­tial step for­ward for a con­di­tion that has seen vir­tu­al­ly no in­no­va­tion.

Crit­ics, though, have point­ed to what’s in the drug: peanuts. Pal­forzia is a form of im­munother­a­py, by which pro­longed ex­po­sure to an al­ler­gen — in this case, peanut pow­der, most­ly but not en­tire­ly equiv­a­lent to what you can find on a su­per­mar­ket shelf — is used to build up re­sis­tance. Some doc­tors have long done this with­out any pre­scribed drug and to some suc­cess. In a 2018 study, re­searchers start­ed 270 pa­tients on 1/2,500th of a peanut and worked 80% of them up to 12 peanuts.

Pal­forzia, op­po­nents say, would take this off-la­bel treat­ment and charge thou­sands of dol­lars for it. An­a­lysts had pro­ject­ed a lit­tle over $4,000 for the price and over $1 bil­lion in peak sales. The ac­tu­al an­nu­al price, Aim­mune an­nounced to­day, will be $10,680.

The In­sti­tute for Clin­i­cal and Eco­nom­ic Re­view al­so point­ed to some of the ad­verse ef­fects pa­tients ex­pe­ri­enced from re­ceiv­ing the drug, and said the long-term ben­e­fit wasn’t clear enough to jus­ti­fy the cost and those ad­verse ef­fects.

Aim­mune has said those risks are to be ex­pect­ed when ex­pos­ing pa­tients to an al­ler­gen. They ar­gued that while doc­tors can pre­scribe pa­tients off-la­bel peanut pow­der, they are ex­posed to law­suits for any re­ac­tion a kid could have to the pow­der. By bring­ing the drug in­to the med­ical sys­tem, they say they give an op­tion for doc­tors to pre­scribe pa­tients with­out mak­ing them­selves li­able.

The drug is ap­proved for chil­dren ages 4 to 17. Aim­mune said they plan to hold pre­sen­ta­tions and work­shops to train 1,300 al­ler­gists on how to ad­min­is­ter the drug.

Image courtesy of The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.

Pro­tect­ing the glob­al phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal in­no­va­tion ecosys­tem – what’s at stake?

We are living in a new era of healthcare that is rapidly advancing progress impacting patient outcomes and experiences. We’ve seen a remarkable pace of transformational innovation, applied research, and advanced clinical development over the last decade.

Despite this tremendous progress, there is much more work to be done, and patients are counting on us – now more than ever – to continue that momentum. At the heart of our industry is a focus on developing and delivering medicines for some of the world’s most challenging diseases, including those that have few or no effective treatments today.

Eu­ro­pean Par­lia­ment calls mem­ber states to ac­tion on an­timi­cro­bial re­sis­tance

Members of the European Parliament have called on EU countries to develop national action plans against antimicrobial resistance (AMR), calling it a top-three priority health threat.

Parliament on Thursday announced recommendations for the fight against AMR, including national action plans that must be updated at least every two years, an EU-level database tracking AMR and antimicrobial use and increased partnership between the pharma industry, patient groups and academia.

Endpoints News

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 170,400+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

Albert Bourla, Pfizer CEO (Michel Euler/AP Images, Pool)

FDA ap­proves Pfiz­er’s RSV shot for old­er adults, tee­ing up a com­pet­i­tive $17B vac­cine mar­ket

The FDA approved Pfizer’s RSV vaccine called Abrysvo for older adults on Wednesday, placing another Big Pharma onto the commercial stage ahead of the next RSV season.

Pfizer’s approval comes weeks after GSK won approval for its rival shot, Arexvy. Those two vaccines are both approved for use in adults 60 years and older and will be reviewed by a CDC panel in June before they’re expected to commercially launch this fall. Wall Street analysts see RSV as the next multibillion-dollar vaccine market, with Jefferies analysts recently forecasting the RSV market will grow to $17 billion over the next decade.

Endpoints News

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 170,400+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

Richard Pazdur, FDA's OCE director (Flatiron Health via YouTube)

FDA's can­cer chief weighs in on com­mon chemo short­ages — re­port

Richard Pazdur, director of the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence, attributes the current shortage of two cancer drugs to drug companies that haven’t invested in building out their production capacity.

In an interview with The Cancer Letter, a weekly cancer publication, Pazdur said that the current shortages of cisplatin and carboplatin, a pair of drugs used to treat a wide range of cancer patients, are the result of two problems: manufacturers not investing in enhancing production capacity, and drug companies being dependent on one supplier of raw ingredients. The cisplatin shortage followed an inspection that revealed quality issues at a manufacturing facility, which then led to the shutdown of production. This led to a surge in carboplatin demand, creating a secondary shortage.

Endpoints News

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 170,400+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

Photo: Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix/Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Images

FDA warns about com­pound­ed semaglu­tide-based drugs

The FDA has warned the public that compounded versions of popular GLP-1 drugs Ozempic and Wegovy may not include the same ingredients as the prescription medications, and that has raised questions about their safety and effectiveness.

The regulator said Tuesday it has received reports of adverse events related to compounded versions of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy. Some products being marketed as semaglutide contain the salt formation of semaglutide, which is not considered safe or effective.

Endpoints News

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 170,400+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

Can­cer as­so­ci­a­tion says na­tion­al bud­get deal threat­ens re­search fund­ing

As the US House of Representatives is expected to vote this evening on a deal that would raise the nation’s debt ceiling, some biopharma industry advocates worry about how proposed budget restrictions could affect drug research.

The proposed budget deal includes relatively flat funding for non-defense spending over the next fiscal year, and a 1% increase in fiscal year 2025, which the Association for Clinical Oncology said on Wednesday would “considerably restrict potential resources for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) at a time when scientists are on the cusp of so many promising cancer discoveries.”

Endpoints News

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 170,400+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

Denny Lanfear, Coherus BioSciences CEO

FDA in­spec­tion of Chi­na-based site mak­ing Co­herus' po­ten­tial new can­cer drug ends with three ob­ser­va­tions

After Covid-related delays that forced the FDA to delay its China-based inspections, Coherus BioSciences said today that its China-based partner Junshi Biosciences has now successfully completed the required pre-approval inspection for its PD-1 toripalimab, which is being made at a site in China, with three observations.

“The Company believes that the three observations received at the close of the FDA inspection are readily addressable and, together with Junshi Biosciences, plans to submit the response to the FDA in early June,” Coherus said in an SEC filing. The company did not disclose the observations, but Coherus’ stock price $CHRS fell by almost 8% on Wednesday.

Endpoints News

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 170,400+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

Ky­owa Kirin re­news sup­port for foun­da­tion that ful­fills wish­es for ter­mi­nal­ly ill adults

Although not as well-known as the pediatric-focused Make-A-Wish organization, the Dream Foundation has been making wishes come true for adults diagnosed with a terminal illness for decades. Kyowa Kirin began supporting the group six years ago, and now is doubling down on its commitment and extending its pledge through next year.

The financial support of Kyowa Kirin and on-the-ground work by its employees have directly led to 100 final dreams for people across the US and Puerto Rico. The Dream Foundation overall grants 2,500 requests each year to people who have a prognosis of 12 months or less to live. The wishes fulfilled range from family trips to places such as Disneyland or beach destinations to professional sports games to meet a sports hero.

Endpoints News

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 170,400+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

San­doz plans to stay lo­cal af­ter No­var­tis sep­a­ra­tion, se­lect­ing new HQ in Basel

Sandoz, a generics maker that Novartis plans to spin off later this year, has picked its new headquarters — and it’s only 2.4 miles away from its current digs on the Novartis campus.

The Novartis unit said Thursday that it plans to move to an office building in Basel called Elsässertor sometime in mid-2024.

Sandoz CEO Richard Saynor said in a news release that the location in the heart of Basel “will allow us to create a working environment that meets our business needs,” citing the talent pool in the Swiss city. Sandoz added that the workspace is designed to allow for “closer collaboration and teamwork.”

Endpoints News

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 170,400+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.