Fresh on the heels of announcing a multibillion-dollar development pact with GlaxoSmithKline, Merck KGaA is showing off its blueprint for a big expansion of its R&D operations in Billerica, outside of Boston.
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Despite rapid advances in the field of immuno-oncology that have transformed the cancer treatment landscape, many cancer patients are still left behind.1,2 Not every person has access to innovative therapies designed specifically to treat his or her disease. Many currently available immuno-oncology-based approaches and chemotherapies have brought long-term benefits to some patients — but many patients still need other therapeutic options.3
A month after the NIH declared the first trial on remdesivir in Covid-19 a success, Gilead is out with new results on their antiviral. But although the study met one of its primary endpoints, the data are likely to only add to a growing debate over how effective the drug actually is.
In a Phase III trial, patients given a 5-day dose of remdesivir were 65% more likely to show “clinical improvement” compared to an arm given standard-of-care. The trial, though, gave little indication for whether the drug had an impact on key endpoints such as survival or time-to-recovery. And in a surprising twist, a 10-day dosing arm of remdesivir didn’t lead to a statistically significant improvement over standard of care.
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Almost exactly three years after Shanghai-based Legend came out of nowhere to steal the show at ASCO with jaw-dropping data on their BCMA-targeted CAR-T for multiple myeloma, the little player with Big Pharma connections is taking a giant step toward making it big on Wall Street. And this time they want to seal the deal on a global rep after staking out a unicorn valuation in what’s turned out to be a bull market for biotech IPOs — in the middle of a pandemic.
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When George Yancopoulos first signed up Intellia to be its CRISPR/Cas9 partner on gene editing projects 4 years ago, the upstart smartly ramped up its IPO at the same time. Today, Regeneron $REGN is coming back in, adding $100 million in an upfront fee and equity to significantly boot up a whole roster of new development projects.
And they’re highlighting some clinical hemophilia research plans in the process.
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While the market for antibiotics remains in tatters — unlike many of its bankrupt (or at the brink of bankruptcy) peers — Iterum is suffering not because its antibiotic isn’t selling, but because the compound has now failed back-to-back late-stage studies.
The experimental drug, sulopenem, was designed to tackle drug-resistant infections with an outpatient focus (in addition to hospitals), to avert those reimbursement challenges that incentivize hospitals to prescribe cheaper, generic broad-spectrum antibiotics.
BioMarin has posted some top-line results for their 4-year followup on the most advanced gene therapy for hemophilia A — extending its streak on keeping a handful of patients free of bleeds and off Factor VIII therapy, but likely stirring fresh worries over a continued drop in Factor VIII levels.
We just don’t know how big a drop.
We’ll see more data when the results are presented at the World Federation of Hemophilia in a couple of weeks. But in a statement out Sunday night, BioMarin $BMRN reported that none of the patients required Factor VIII treatment, adding:
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AstraZeneca is rolling out the big guns this evening to provide a salute to their ADAURA data on Tagrisso at ASCO.
Cancer R&D chief José Baselga calls the disease-free survival data for their drug in an adjuvant setting of early stage, epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated NSCLC patients following surgery “momentous.” Roy Herbst, the principal investigator out of Yale, calls it “transformative.”
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A series of bullish trades on Gilead options just before the release of a favorable news story is raising questions among regulatory experts, Reuters reported.
On April 16, just hours before STAT published anecdotes from a Chicago hospital that served as one of the clinical sites to test Gilead’s remdesivir in Covid-19 patients, the California-based company’s shares were trading at around $75. Four large blocks of options were purchased for about $1.5 million each, betting that the stock would rise beyond that to as much as $87.5 by mid-August.
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For the first time in 12 years, the FDA has approved a new frontline treatment for the most common form of liver cancer.
The agency okayed a combination of Roche’s anti-VEGF antibody Avastin and their immunotherapy Tecentriq for patients with unresectable or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The approval comes two weeks after Roche and their big biotech sub Genentech published Phase III results showing the combo improved both progression-free survival and, crucially, helped patients live longer than the long-running standard-of-care, Bayer’s Nexavar.