UPDATED: Amgen scraps or halts a slate of 5 cancer studies in a series of setbacks. But execs focus on mastering ‘induced proximity’

February 2, 2021 05:12 PM ESTUpdated February 3, 07:03 AM

UPDATED: Amgen scraps or halts a slate of 5 cancer studies in a series of setbacks. But execs focus on mastering 'induced proximity'

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Amgen rolled out their Q4 numbers Tuesday afternoon, while flagging that a long lineup of its cancer therapy studies has been halted as they review safety questions on one drug and scrap several others in a pipeline reorganization. But the main R&D focus during the call with analysts revolved around plans to make Amgen the industry leader in what execs are calling “induced proximity.” And they sound prepared to ink some BD deals to make that happen.

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Robert Bradway (Photographer: Scott Eisen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

March 4, 2021 08:51 AM ESTUpdated 10:33 AM

Deals

UPDATED: Amgen snaps up cancer drug player Five Prime, adding PhIII-ready FGFR2b drug in $2B M&A play

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Amgen is making a long-awaited move on the M&A side, buying South San Francisco-based Five Prime $FPRX for close to $2 billion and adding a slate of new cancer drugs to the pipeline.

Amgen is paying $38 a share, putting the deal value at $1.9 billion. The stock closed at $21.26 last night, giving investors a 78% premium.

The jewel in the crown of this deal is bemarituzumab, which Amgen describes as a first-in-class, Phase III-ready anti-FGFR2b antibody. Amgen was drawn to the bargaining table by Five Prime’s mid-stage data on gastric cancer, satisfied by PFS and OS data helping to validate FGFR2b as a target. Amgen researchers will now expand on the R&D program in other epithelial cancers, including lung, breast, ovarian and other cancers.

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David Liu (Casey Atkins Photography courtesy Broad Institute)

March 4, 2021 06:57 AM ESTUpdated 3 hours ago

Discovery

In Focus

David Liu has a new big idea: proteome editing. It could one day shred tau, RAS and some of the worst disease-causing proteins

Jason Mast

Editor

Before David Liu became famous for inventing new forms of gene editing, he was known around academia in part for a more obscure innovation: a Rube Goldberg-esque system that uses bacteria-infecting viruses to take one protein and turn it into another.

Since 2011, Liu’s lab has used the system, called PACE, to dream up fantastical new proteins: DNA base editors far more powerful than the original; more versatile forms of the gene editor Cas9; insecticides that kill insecticide-resistant bugs; enzymes that slide synthetic amino acids into living organisms. But they struggled throughout to master one of the most common and powerful proteins in the biological world: proteases, a set of Swiss army knife enzymes that cut, cleave or shred other proteins in everything from viruses to humans.

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March 3, 2021 08:33 AM EST

Deals

The 2021 top 100 biopharma investors: As the pandemic hit and IPOs boomed, VCs swung into action like never before

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

The global pandemic may have roiled economies, killed hundreds of thousands and throttled entire industries, but the only effect it had on biopharma venture investing was to help turbocharge the field to giddy new heights.

Below you’ll find the new top 100 venture investors in the industry, ranked by the number of deals they were publicly involved in, as tracked by DealForma chief Chris Dokomajilar. The numbers master then calculated the estimated amount of money they put into each deal — divvying up the cash by the number of players — to indicate how they managed their syndicates.

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March 4, 2021 06:45 AM EST

R&D

Eli Lilly claims a TKO in its long-running title fight with Novo Nordisk for the blockbuster diabetes market — but there’s a hitch

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Eli Lilly isn’t just gunning for a better diabetes drug in tirzepatide. They want to cut ahead of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster rival Ozempic (semaglutide) on the obesity front as well. But a newly-claimed win in a head-to-head Phase III showdown over reducing A1C while shedding pounds — complete with clear evidence of superiority over the approved rival — could prove a tough sell right now.

Let’s start with the latest data from Lilly.

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Cedric Francois, Apellis CEO (Apellis)

March 4, 2021 04:51 PM EST

R&D

Coronavirus

Apellis joins the growing number of biopharmas scrapping a failed Covid-19 program after an early flop

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

The global pandemic set off a frenzy of R&D activity as biotechs around the world scrambled to see if they could come up with a new medication or vaccine to help fight back. But even as the mRNA standouts are highlighting the market El Dorado open to successful teams, the failures are starting to pile up.

Thursday afternoon it was Apellis’ $APLS turn to deep-six a new drug.

The biotech reports that their C3 therapy APL-9 had failed to move the needle on mortality when combined with standard of care, as compared to SOC alone.

Hal Barron, Endpoints UKBIO19

March 3, 2021 10:48 AM EST

R&D

Coronavirus

GSK, Vir's hopes for a Covid-19 antibody fall flat in NIH 'master protocol' with no benefit in hospitalized patients

Kyle Blankenship

Managing Editor

GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology were hopeful that one of their partnered antibodies would carve out a win after getting the invite to a major NIH study in hospitalized Covid-19 patients. But just like Eli Lilly, the pair’s drug couldn’t hit the mark, and now they’ll be left to take a hard look at the game plan.

The NIH has shut down enrollment for GSK and Vir’s antibody VIR-7831 in its late-stage ACTIV-3 trial after the drug showed negligible effect in achieving sustained recovery in hospitalized Covid-19 patients, the partners said Wednesday.

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March 3, 2021 10:23 AM ESTUpdated March 3, 10:42 PM

R&D

As BrainStorm continues to tout ‘clear signal’ on ALS drug, the FDA offers a rare public slapdown on the data

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

A little more than a week after BrainStorm acknowledged that regulators at the FDA had informed them that the biotech needed more data before it could expect to gain an approval for its ALS treatment NurOwn — while still touting a “clear signal” of efficacy and not ruling out an application — the agency has decided to clarify the record in a most unusual statement.

The FDA statement amounts to a straight slapdown, offering a different set of efficacy numbers from the company’s public presentation last November and ruling out any chance of statistical significance.

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March 3, 2021 08:10 AM ESTUpdated 09:15 AM

R&D

Eli Lilly claims success in a new JAK indication: hair loss

Jason Mast

Editor

Over the last decade, drugmakers have proven JAK inhibitors can treat a smattering of immune-related diseases ranging from rheumatoid arthritis to Covid-19. Now Eli Lilly has pulled out a new one.

Lilly and its biotech partner Incyte announced Wednesday that their JAK inhibitor baricitinib effectively regrew patients’ hair in a Phase III trial for alopecia areata, an autoimmune condition that can cause sudden, severe and patchy hair loss. Lilly didn’t break down the results from the 546-patient trial, but the primary endpoint was improvement on a standard score for alopecia symptoms.

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Norbert Bischofberger (Kronos)

March 4, 2021 11:09 AM EST

R&D

Kronos seals pact with regulators to hunt AML with previously off-limits biomarker endpoint

Max Gelman

Associate Editor

As head of R&D at Gilead, Norbert Bischofberger shelved the SYK inhibitor entospletinib after it proved to need too lengthy a development cycle to win approval. The FDA heard those concerns and will now give entospletinib, once again under Bischofberger’s watchful eye at Kronos, a faster shot on goal.

Kronos has reached an agreement with the FDA to conduct a Phase III trial with a unique primary endpoint, the company announced Thursday, one that it hopes will accelerate entospletinib’s path forward in a certain type of acute myeloid leukemia. The endpoint is measurable residual disease (MRD) negativity, which Kronos says can paint a clearer picture when it comes to the study’s complete response rate.