Hav­ing bet heav­i­ly on JAK in­hibitors — putting to­geth­er a port­fo­lio an­chored by Xel­janz and now Cib­in­qo — Pfiz­er is get­ting some help to de­vel­op its next such can­di­date.

But we don’t know who the part­ner is just yet.

In pre­pared re­marks dur­ing Pfiz­er’s Q3 earn­ings call, CEO Al­bert Bourla re­vealed to in­vestors that the com­pa­ny has ex­clu­sive­ly li­censed bre­poc­i­tinib, a Phase II dual JAK/TYK2 in­hibitor, to “a new com­pa­ny formed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with a part­ner that has a proven track record in late-stage in­flam­ma­tion and im­munol­o­gy drug de­vel­op­ment.”

That new com­pa­ny, which al­so got TYK2 in­hibitor PF-06826647 from the deal, will take charge of all fu­ture de­vel­op­ment de­ci­sions. In re­turn, Pfiz­er kept a 25% stake and cer­tain ex-US com­mer­cial rights to the two as­sets.

While drugs that block Janus ki­nase have proven ef­fec­tive at tamp­ing down a range of in­flam­ma­to­ry con­di­tions, they’ve trig­gered alarm­ing safe­ty is­sues. In Sep­tem­ber, the FDA con­clud­ed that Pfiz­er’s Xel­janz and Xel­janz XR are tied to an in­creased risk of se­ri­ous heart-re­lat­ed events such as heart at­tack or stroke, can­cer, blood clots and death — and warned that oth­er JAK in­hibitors may car­ry sim­i­lar risks.

Pfiz­er is still in talks with the FDA to fi­nal­ize the la­bel up­date re­sult­ing from the re­view, ac­cord­ing to Bourla.

“Over­all, we re­main con­fi­dent in the im­por­tance of the JAK in­hibitor class for ap­pro­pri­ate pa­tients with in­flam­ma­to­ry dis­eases, and we are pur­su­ing a va­ri­ety of op­tions for ad­vanc­ing ad­di­tion­al JAK in­hibitor as­sets with­in our pipeline,” he said.

Of­ten po­si­tioned side by side with the JAK3 in­hibitor ritlecitinib on pipeline slides, bre­poc­i­tinib is be­ing test­ed in Phase II tri­als for mul­ti­ple dis­eases, in­clud­ing hidradeni­tis sup­pu­ra­ti­va, ul­cer­a­tive col­i­tis, Crohn’s dis­ease, vi­tili­go, pso­ri­at­ic arthri­tis, alope­cia area­ta, lu­pus, atopic der­mati­tis and pso­ri­a­sis.

PF-06826647 ap­pears more ear­ly-stage in com­par­i­son, show­ing up on­ly in two Phase II tri­als at the most re­cent pipeline up­date.

If TYK2 sounds fa­mil­iar, that’s like­ly be­cause Bris­tol My­ers Squibb has made plen­ty of noise about be­ing the leader in the space with deu­cravac­i­tinib — even at the al­leged per­il of part­ners at Nim­bus. Even though Bris­tol My­ers flopped its first test in ul­cer­a­tive col­i­tis, the com­pa­ny re­mains stead­fast in its trek to­ward ap­proval.

For Pfiz­er, Bourla de­scribed the deal as a way to al­lo­cate prop­er re­sources to those two pro­grams, “while al­low­ing Pfiz­er to fo­cus on di­ver­si­fy­ing its pipeline.”

The FDA hasn’t detected any potential safety signals, including for stroke, in people aged 65 years and older who have received Pfizer’s bivalent Covid booster, one senior official told members of the agency’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) on Thursday.

The update comes as the FDA and CDC investigate a “preliminary signal” that may indicate an increased risk of ischemic stroke in older Americans who received Pfizer’s updated shot.

The FDA has stopped use of another drug as a result of the new coronavirus variants. On Thursday, the agency announced that AstraZeneca’s antibody combo Evusheld, which was an important prevention option for many immunocompromised people and others, is no longer authorized.

The FDA said it made its decision based on the fact that Evusheld works on fewer than 10% of circulating variants.

Evusheld was initially given emergency authorization at the end of 2021. However, as Omicron emerged, so did studies that showed Evusheld might not work against the dominant Omicron strain. In October, the FDA warned healthcare providers that Evusheld was useless against the Omicron subvariant BA.4.6. It followed that up with another announcement earlier this month that it did not think Evusheld would work against the latest Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5.

Magenta Therapeutics is pausing an early-stage clinical trial after a patient died. The death was deemed to be possibly related to its drug, MGTA-117.

The biotech said the pause of the Phase I/II trial is voluntary and gives it time to review all available data before deciding what to do next. It’s also reported the known information to the FDA.

The dose-escalation trial was designed to test whether MGTA-117, an antibody-drug conjugate, could serve as a more targeted alternative to high-intensity chemotherapy as a conditioning agent for cancer patients who are set to receive a stem cell transplant. It recruited patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome.

Regeneron has won a patent case against Swiss pharma giant Novartis over the delivery system for its eye drug Eylea.

The US Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled that Novartis’ pre-filled syringe for injecting its eye medication Lucentis was “unpatentable” and handed the victory to Regeneron and its AMD drug Eylea.

In the initial complaint in 2020, Novartis alleged to the US International Trade Commission that certain pre-filled syringes for the intravitreal injection, and ultimately Regeneron’s delivery system for Eylea, were infringing on Novartis’ patent. Regeneron filed a petition to review Novartis’ claims in 2021.