As dust settles on the Arena buyout, Pfizer exec suggests company will pursue a more aggressive M&A strategy

Aamir Malik, Pfizer chief business innovation officer

December 14, 2021 10:07 AM EST

As dust settles on the Arena buyout, Pfizer exec suggests company will pursue a more aggressive M&A strategy

Max Gelman

Senior Editor

Pfizer made a big splash in the M&A space Monday, announcing a $6.7 billion buyout of Arena Pharmaceuticals to chase Bristol Myers Squibb in the S1P race. But company execs suggested the company isn’t finished bringing on new assets.

In an investor call outlining the Arena acquisition, chief business innovation officer Aamir Malik took a moment to discuss Pfizer’s growth plans going forward. The strategy was made up of three pillars: advancing the internal pipeline, continuing to pursue outside opportunities and exploring the combination of technology and data to “accelerate” growth.

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Lina Gugucheva, NewAmsterdam Pharma CBO

June 28, 2022 08:00 AM EDT

Deals

Pharma group bets up to $1B-plus on the PhIII resurrection of a once dead-and-buried LDL drug

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Close to 5 years after then-Amgen R&D chief Sean Harper tamped the last spade of dirt on the last broadly focused CETP cholesterol drug — burying their $300 million upfront and the few remaining hopes for the class with it — the therapy has been fully resurrected. And today, the NewAmsterdam Pharma crew that did the Lazarus treatment on obicetrapib is taking another big step on the comeback trail with a €1 billion-plus regional licensing deal, complete with close to $150 million in upfront cash.

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June 28, 2022 07:17 AM EDT

Pharma

In Focus

How prepared is biopharma for the cyber doomsday?

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

One of the largest cyberattacks in history happened on a Friday, Eric Perakslis distinctly remembers.

Perakslis, who was head of Takeda’s R&D Data Sciences Institute and visiting faculty at Harvard Medical School at the time, had spent that morning completing a review on cybersecurity for the British Medical Journal. Moments after he turned it in, he heard back from the editor: “Have you heard what’s going on right now?”

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June 28, 2022 08:37 AM EDTUpdated 08:56 AM

R&D

Pharma

Scoop: Roche scraps one of two schizophrenia PhII trials after failing the primary endpoint

Kyle LaHucik

Associate Editor

Roche has terminated one of two Phase II trials testing its drug ralmitaront in patients with schizophrenia, the Big Pharma confirmed to Endpoints News.

The study was terminated last month, according to a June 22 update to the registry on clinicaltrials.gov. Begun in September 2020, the trial was looking at ralmitaront in patients with acute schizophrenia. The trial enrolled 286 patients out of an originally planned 308.

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Director of Quality Assurance

ImmunityBio

Dunkirk, NY, USA

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June 27, 2022 07:00 AM EDT

R&D

Scoop: Boehringer quietly shutters a PhII for one of its top drugs — now under review

Kyle LaHucik

Associate Editor

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Boehringer Ingelheim has quietly shut down a small Phase II study for one of its lead drugs.

The private pharma player confirmed to Endpoints News that it had shuttered a study testing spesolimab as a therapy for Crohn’s patients suffering from bowel obstructions.

A spokesperson for the company tells Endpoints:

Taking into consideration the current therapeutic landscape and ongoing clinical development programs, Boehringer Ingelheim decided to discontinue our program in Crohn’s disease. It is important to note that this decision is not based on any safety findings in the clinical trials.

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Merdad Parsey, Gilead CMO

June 28, 2022 09:12 AM EDT

R&D

Pharma

Four months after CRL due to contaminant worries, Gilead returns to FDA for next-gen HIV drug

Paul Schloesser

Associate Editor

Just shy of four months ago, Gilead’s next-gen HIV drug candidate lenacapavir got hit with a CRL over CMC issues involving the type of vials planned for use. Now, the pharma is headed back to the FDA for round two.

Gilead announced Monday afternoon that it had refiled its NDA submission filled with new CMC data after the FDA essentially balked at borosilicate glass vials, originally used for the non-oral form of lenacapavir. The drug candidate, which recently won a positive opinion from Europe’s CHMP, is being developed for HIV-1 infection “in heavily treatment-experienced (HTE) people with multi-drug resistant (MDR) HIV-1 infection.”

June 28, 2022 08:52 AM EDT

Deals

Years after linking arms with Bristol Myers and both Mercks, Sutro finds its latest partner in Tokyo

Kyle LaHucik

Associate Editor

Astellas and Sutro Biopharma are linking arms on a new field of antibody-drug conjugates that they hope will improve upon existing cancer immunotherapies.

The Tokyo pharma will dole out $90 million in cash for the collaboration, the companies said Monday afternoon. That upfront payment will extend the South San Francisco biotech’s runway from late 2023 into the first half of 2024, Cowen analysts noted.

Pearl Huang, Dunad Therapeutics CEO (Ken Richardson, PR Newswire)

June 28, 2022 07:00 AM EDT

People

Startups

Longtime biotech leader Pearl Huang takes the reins as CEO of Novartis-backed upstart

Tyler Patchen

News Reporter

It has only been a few months since Pearl Huang exited the top seat at Cygnal Therapeutics, but now she’s back at the helm of another biotech.

After taking a few months off — passing an exam in that time to get her captain’s license from the US Coast Guard — she’s been named CEO of Dunad Therapeutics, a biotech focused on developing a small molecule covalent therapies that was founded in 2020. Huang told Endpoints News that two factors attracted her to going back to the c-suite: the company’s technology and its co-founders.

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Product Sales Manager

ImmunityBio

Remote

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June 27, 2022 02:30 PM EDTUpdated 05:31 PM

Financing

Pharma

Manufacturing

Alexion puts €65M forward to strengthen its position on the Emerald Isle

Tyler Patchen

News Reporter

Ireland has been on a roll in 2022, with several large pharma companies announcing multimillion-euro projects. Now AstraZeneca’s rare disease outfit Alexion is looking to get in on the action.

Alexion on Friday announced a €65 million ($68.8 million) investment in new and enhanced capabilities across two sites in the country, including at College Park in the Dublin suburb of Blanchardstown and the Monksland Industrial Park in the central Irish town of Athlone, according to the Industrial Development Agency of Ireland.

June 27, 2022 01:29 PM EDT

Deals

A Merck partner is sucked into the financial quagmire as key lender calls in a note

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Another biotech standing on shaky financial legs has fallen victim to the bears.

Merck partner 4D Pharma has reported that a key lender, Oxford Finance, shoved the UK company into administration after calling in a $14 million loan they couldn’t immediately make good on. Trading in their stock was halted with a market cap that had fallen to a mere £30 million.

“Despite the very difficult prevailing market conditions,” 4D reported on Friday, the biotech had been making progress on finding some new financing and turned to Oxford with an alternative late on Thursday and then again Friday morning.