Gilead has turned the spotlight in M&A and BD to cancer since Dan O’Day took the top spot at the company. But today, it’s virology’s turn to take center stage.

The CEO has struck a deal to buy out Germany’s MYR GmbH, a privately held biotech which has an advanced drug for hepatitis delta virus that fits well with their focus on hepatitis B, for $1.7 billion. Most of that is in cash, with $360 million on the table for an FDA approval.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 128,800+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SIGN UP LOG IN

Welcome back to Endpoints Weekly, your review of the week’s top biopharma headlines. Want this in your inbox every Saturday morning? Current Endpoints readers can visit their reader profile to add Endpoints Weekly. New to Endpoints? Sign up here.

For those of you who attended #JPM22 in any shape or form, we hope you had a fruitful time. Regardless of how you spent the past hectic week, may your weekend be just what you need it to be.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 128,800+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SIGN UP LOG IN

Back in the fall of 2020, newly crowned Pfizer chief Albert Bourla confidently put their JAK1 inhibitor abrocitinib at the top of the list of blockbuster drugs in the late-stage pipeline with a $3 billion-plus peak sales estimate.

Since then it’s been subjected to serious criticism for the safety warnings associated with the class, held back by a cautious FDA and questioned when researchers rolled out a top-line boast that their heavyweight contender had beaten the champ in the field of atopic dermatitis — Dupixent — in a head-to-head study.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 128,800+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SIGN UP LOG IN

Rob Califf’s second confirmation process as FDA commissioner is already much more difficult than his near unanimous confirmation under the Obama administration.

The Senate Health Committee on Thursday voted 13-8 in favor of advancing Califf’s nomination to a full Senate vote. Several Democrats voted against Califf, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Maggie Hassan. Several other Democrats who aren’t on the committee, like West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, also said Thursday that they would not vote for Califf. Markey, Hassan and Manchin all previously expressed reservations about the prospect of Janet Woodcock as an FDA commissioner nominee too.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 128,800+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SIGN UP LOG IN

Biogen executives made clear in an investor call Thursday they are not preparing to run a new CMS-approved clinical trial for their controversial Alzheimer’s drug anytime soon.

As requested in a draft national coverage decision from CMS earlier this week, Biogen and other anti-amyloid drugs will need to show “a meaningful improvement in health outcomes” for Alzheimer’s patients in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial to get paid for their drugs, rather than just the reduction in amyloid plaques that won Aduhelm its accelerated approval in June.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 128,800+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SIGN UP LOG IN

After establishing itself in the front ranks of cancer drug developers and marketers, AstraZeneca is putting its scientific shoulder — and a significant amount of cash — behind the wheel of a brash new upstart in the biotech world.

The pharma giant trumpeted news this morning that it is handing over $75 million upfront to ally itself with Scorpion Therapeutics, one of those biotechs that was newly birthed by some top scientific, venture and executive talent and bequeathed with a fortune by way of a bankroll to advance an only hazily explained drug platform. And they are still very much in the discovery and preclinical phase.

Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription

Unlock this story instantly and join 128,800+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free.

SIGN UP LOG IN