As­traZeneca joins Mer­ck, Bris­tol-My­ers in Chi­na's check­point race as reg­u­la­tors OK first PD-L1

As­traZeneca has made a stride to­ward re­al­iz­ing its am­bi­tions in Chi­na as reg­u­la­tors green­light Imfinzi as a treat­ment for non-small cell lung can­cer.

In par­tic­u­lar, the PD-L1 agent is fill­ing a void for im­munother­a­pies in Stage III un­re­sectable case, the com­pa­ny said, where the can­cer has not spread to the rest of the body. It is to be used, with cu­ra­tive in­tent, in pa­tients whose can­cer hasn’t pro­gressed fol­low­ing con­cur­rent plat­inum-based chemother­a­py and ra­di­a­tion ther­a­py.

Dave Fredrick­son

“This ap­proval il­lus­trates our long-stand­ing com­mit­ment to im­prov­ing health out­comes in Chi­na, where more than one-third of the world’s lung can­cer di­ag­noses and deaths oc­cur,” said Dave Fredrick­son, who heads As­traZeneca’s on­col­o­gy busi­ness unit, in a state­ment.

Imfinz’s ap­proval al­so marks the en­try of a PD-L1 in­hibitor to the coun­try, where PD-1 drugs have been pil­ing up. Bris­tol-My­ers Squibb scored the first-ever Chi­nese ap­proval for a check­point in­hibitor in June 2018, with Op­di­vo in­di­cat­ed for sec­ond-line treat­ment of NSCLC, and Mer­ck has been rack­ing up OKs for dif­fer­ent reg­i­mens in­volv­ing Keytru­da.

Then there are the do­mes­tic ri­vals, whose drugs are cur­rent­ly lim­it­ed to lym­phoma or melanoma but al­so have plans for a lu­cra­tive lung can­cer mar­ket. And they are ea­ger to com­pete on price.

Leon Wang

For As­traZeneca, this is just more rea­son to roll up its sleeves and get to ne­go­ti­at­ing with pay­ers. Its head of Chi­na, Leon Wang, has pre­vi­ous­ly told Bloomberg that he sees new treat­ments con­tribut­ing to 60% of all its Chi­na rev­enue with­in five years. To il­lus­trate that dri­ve, Wang of­fered the ex­am­ple of its first-gen EGFR-tar­get­ing lung can­cer Ires­sa, in which they won the drug sup­ply con­tract in by slash­ing the price more than 70%.

Quick ap­provals for third-gen EGFR TKI Tagris­so (which is now on the Na­tion­al Re­im­burse­ment Drug List), as well as the PARP in­hibitor Lyn­parza, helped — and now it’s time for Imfinzi to shine. No­tably, Roche’s PD-L1 Tecen­triq — which gained FDA ap­proval ear­li­er than Imfinzi — is not yet avail­able in Chi­na.

In the Phase III PA­CIF­IC tri­al, Imfinzi cut the risk of death by 32% and pro­longed pro­gres­sion-free sur­vival by 11.2 months ver­sus place­bo (me­di­an PFS 16.8 vs 5.6 months), when paired with chemo or ra­di­a­tion ther­a­py. At the three-year mark, 57% of pa­tients on the Imfinzi arm are still alive com­pared to 43.5% on place­bo, ac­cord­ing to a post hoc analy­sis pre­sent­ed at AS­CO.

Imfinzi sales have gone over the $1 bil­lion mark in the first three quar­ters of the year, grow­ing 182% com­pared to the same pe­ri­od last year.

Forge Bi­o­log­ics’ cGMP Com­pli­ant and Com­mer­cial­ly Vi­able Be­spoke Affin­i­ty Chro­matog­ra­phy Plat­form

Forge Biologics has developed a bespoke affinity chromatography platform approach that factors in unique vector combinations to streamline development timelines and assist our clients in efficiently entering the clinic. By leveraging our experience with natural and novel serotypes and transgene conformations, we are able to accelerate affinity chromatography development by nearly 3-fold. Many downstream purification models are serotype-dependent, demanding unique and time-consuming development strategies for each AAV gene therapy product1. With the increasing demand to propel AAV gene therapies to market, platform purification methods that support commercial-scale manufacturing of high-quality vectors with excellent safety and efficacy profiles are essential.

Cy­to­ki­net­ics’ ALS drug fails PhI­II, leav­ing the biotech with a sin­gle late-stage prospect

Cytokinetics’ candidate for the muscle disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, failed a Phase III trial, the Bay Area biotech announced Friday morning.

At a second interim analysis of the trial, an independent review committee recommended that Cytokinetics discontinue its COURAGE-ALS trial for reldesemtiv, as it “found no evidence of effect” compared to placebo on the primary or key secondary endpoints.

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Mathai Mammen, FogPharma's next CEO

Math­ai Mam­men hands in J&J's R&D keys to lead Greg Ver­dine’s Fog­Phar­ma 

In the early 1990s, Mathai Mammen was a teaching assistant in Greg Verdine’s Science B46 course at Harvard. In June, the former R&D head at Johnson & Johnson will succeed Verdine as CEO, president and chair of FogPharma, the same month the seven-year-old biotech kickstarts its first clinical trial.

After leading R&D at one of the largest drugmakers in the world, taking the company through more than half a dozen drug approvals in the past few years, not to mention a Covid-19 vaccine race, Mammen departed J&J last month and will take the helm of a Cambridge, MA biotech attempting to go after what Verdine calls the “true emperor of all oncogenes” — beta-catenin.

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Sen­ate Fi­nance Com­mit­tee lobs more bi­par­ti­san pres­sure on­to PBMs

Congress is honing in on how it wants to overhaul the rules of the road for pharmacy benefit managers, with a Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday serving as the latest example of the Hill’s readiness to make changes to how pharma middlemen operate.

While pledging to ensure patients and pharmacies “don’t get a raw deal,” Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) laid out the beginning of what looks like a major bipartisan effort — moves the PBM industry is likely to challenge vigorously.

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Nicklas Westerholm, Egetis Therapeutics CEO

Ac­qui­si­tion talks on­go­ing for Swedish rare dis­ease biotech Egetis, shares up al­most 40%

Shares of the Sweden-based rare disease biotech Egetis Therapeutics skyrocketed on Thursday afternoon as the company said it’s engaged in “ongoing discussion” with external parties regarding a “potential acquisition.”

Egetis confirmed rumors with a statement on Thursday while noting that there is no certainty that a takeover offer will be made.

Nonetheless, the possibility of an acquisition has shot up Egetis’ share price. By the afternoon on Thursday, its stock price was {$EGTX.ST} up over 38%. An Egetis spokesperson told Endpoints News in an email that it has no further comments.

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Lu­pus drug de­vel­op­ment mar­ket heat­ing up, while FDA links with ad­vo­ca­cy group to fur­ther ac­cel­er­ate re­search

The long-underserved systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) market is suddenly buzzing with treatment possibilities. Less than two years after AstraZeneca’s approval for Saphnelo — the first new SLE drug in a decade and joining just one other approved in GSK’s Benlysta – the pipeline of potential drugs numbers in the dozens.

Although most are very early stage — Spherix Global Insights estimates five in Phase II/III — the pharma R&D enthusiasm is catching on among doctors, patients and advocacy groups. On Wednesday, the Lupus Research Alliance and the FDA formed a novel private-public partnership called Lupus Accelerating Breakthroughs Consortium (Lupus ABC) to help advance lupus clinical trial success.

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CHMP gives thumbs-up for We­govy use in ado­les­cents, along with nine new drug rec­om­men­da­tions

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended nine drugs for approval this week while also giving thumbs up for six expanded indications, including Novo Nordisk’s approved obesity medication Wegovy for younger people. Wegovy is already approved as an obesity treatment in the EU for adults, and the new indication would allow prescriptions for adolescents aged 12 and older.

Green­Light re­ceives buy­out of­fer; Apol­lomics com­pletes SPAC merg­er

RNA biotech GreenLight Biosciences has been handed an offer for potential acquisition.

GreenLight said in a release that it has received a non-binding “indication of interest” from Fall Line Endurance Fund to acquire GreenLight’s capital stock for $0.60 per share in cash. The release said any potential agreement between the two parties would depend on certain conditions.

Through a special committee, the biotech will evaluate the offer but added there’s no certainty a deal will go forward. GreenLight will also not make any more announcements until a deal comes through or “otherwise determines” a statement is necessary.

Sar­to­rius to ac­quire French man­u­fac­tur­er for $2.6B+ in cell and gene ther­a­py play

The German life science group Sartorius will be picking up French contract manufacturer Polyplus for the price of €2.4 billion, or $2.6 billion.

On Friday, Sartorius announced the acquisition through its French subgroup, Sartorius Stedim Biotech, which will be acquiring Polyplus from private investors ARCHIMED and WP GG Holdings IV. Polyplus has 270 employees and produces materials and components that go into making viral vectors that are used in cell and gene therapies. This includes DNA/RNA reagents as well as plasmid DNA. Polyplus has locations in France, Belgium, China and the US.