→  Af­ter com­ing per­ilous­ly close to see­ing their PC­SK9 drug Pralu­ent jerked off the mar­ket, Sanofi and Re­gen­eron have won a new tri­al in the case in­volv­ing a ri­val drug at Am­gen. An ap­peals court is giv­ing their at­tor­neys a green light to raise is­sues re­gard­ing the va­lid­i­ty of the patents.

→ Bridge­Bio is bankrolling a biotech start­up to the tune of $30 mil­lion. Part­ner­ing with MD An­der­son, the start­up — dubbed Navire Phar­ma — will fund work on in­hibit­ing SHP2 in fight­ing can­cer tu­mors. Shafique Vi­rani, a busi­ness de­vel­op­ment ex­ec at Roche/Genen­tech, has been named the new CEO. “Navire’s com­pounds po­tent­ly bind SHP2 and pre­vent ac­ti­va­tion of the pro­tein, block­ing its abil­i­ty to pro­mote tu­mor growth,” said Vi­rani.

→ The New York Times cov­ers the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment’s ef­forts at pre­vent­ing short­ages of the drugs and de­vices man­u­fac­tured in Puer­to Ri­co at scores of fa­cil­i­ties on the bad­ly dam­aged is­land.

→ Bio­gen is of­fer­ing new da­ta demon­strat­ing that ear­li­er ini­ti­a­tion of treat­ment with Spin­raza (nusin­ersen) may im­prove mo­tor func­tion out­comes in in­fants and chil­dren with spinal mus­cu­lar at­ro­phy.

Dupixent, the blockbuster anti-inflammatory drug from Sanofi and Regeneron, has cleared a high-stakes Phase III study in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the companies announced Thursday morning.

If they hold up in a second, identical trial, the data pave the way for Dupixent to become the first biologic to treat patients whose COPD remains uncontrolled despite being on maximal standard-of-care inhaled therapy — the patient population studied in the pivotal program. The companies had spotlighted this as a key readout as they look to expand the Dupixent franchise and explore its full potential.

Incyte touted an accelerated approval for its PD-1 retifanlimab in a rare skin cancer on Wednesday, roughly a year and a half after the drug suffered a rejection in squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal (SCAC).

Retifanlimab, marketed as Zynyz, was approved for metastatic or recurrent locally advanced Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), a fast-growing skin cancer typically characterized by a single, painless nodule. It’s roughly 40 times rarer than melanoma, according to the nonprofit Skin Cancer Foundation — but incidence is growing, particularly among older adults, Incyte said in its announcement.

Novartis is calling off a UK-based trial for Leqvio in the primary prevention of cardiovascular events in patients with high cholesterol, the company confirmed on Wednesday.

The Swiss pharma giant made the decision after “careful evaluation,” a spokesperson told Endpoints News via email. The trial, dubbed ORION-17, was planned in partnership with England’s National Health Service (NHS) and was part of the company’s strategy to establish Leqvio as a standard of care in cardiovascular disease management.