Updated: DeepMind’s AlphaFold now contains structure of 200M proteins. What does that mean for drug R&D?

Demis Hassabis, DeepMind CEO (Qianlong/Imaginechina via AP Images)

July 28, 2022 07:16 AM EDTUpdated August 1, 11:27 AM

Updated: DeepMind's AlphaFold now contains structure of 200M proteins. What does that mean for drug R&D?

Paul Schloesser

Associate Editor

When AlphaFold first came out, it debuted with the promise of increasing the number of protein structures that could be predicted, a move that had eluded researchers for decades and could prove to become a crucial step to moving drug development to a new height.

Now, AlphaFold says its database of protein structures has been massively expanded.

Google’s AI outfit and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) announced Thursday that DeepMind’s AlphaFold database now contains the structures of more than 200 million proteins. It’s a substantial jump from where it was a year ago when DeepMind announced that it had predicted the structure of only about 350,000 proteins.

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MedTech clinical trials require a unique regulatory and study design approach and so engaging a highly experienced CRO to ensure compliance and accurate data across all stages is critical to development milestones.

Innovative MedTech Demands Specialist Clinical Trial Regulatory Affairs and Design

Tom Avery

Scientific and Medical Affairs Specialist, Medical Devices

Avance Clinical is the Australian CRO for international biotechs providing world-class clinical research services with FDA-accepted data across all phases. With Avance Clinical, biotech companies can leverage Australia’s supportive clinical trials environment which includes no IND requirement plus a 43.5% Government incentive rebate on clinical spend. The CRO has been delivering clinical drug development services for international biotechs for FDA and EMA regulatory approval for the past 24 years. The company has been recognized for the past two consecutive years with the prestigious Frost & Sullivan CRO Best Practices Award and a finalist in Informa Pharma’s Best CRO award for 2022.

Uğur Şahin, BioNTech CEO (Kay Nietfeld/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

August 8, 2022 02:58 PM EDT

Pharma

Despite falling Covid-19 sales, BioNTech maintains '22 sales guidance

Paul Schloesser

Associate Editor

While Pfizer raked in almost $28 billion last quarter, its Covid-19 vaccine partner BioNTech reported a rise in total dose orders but a drop in sales.

The German biotech reported over $3.2 billion in revenue in Q2 on Monday, down from more than $6.7 billion in Q1, in part due to falling Covid sales. While management said last quarter that they anticipated a Covid sales drop — CEO Uğur Şahin said at the time that “the pandemic situation is still very much uncertain” — Q2 sales still missed consensus by 14%.

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Ted Love, Global Blood Therapeutics CEO

August 8, 2022 07:34 AM EDTUpdated 11:57 AM

Deals

Updated: Pfizer scoops up Global Blood Therapeutics and its sickle cell therapies for $5.4B

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

Pfizer is dropping $5.4 billion to acquire Global Blood Therapeutics.

Just ahead of the weekend, word got out that Pfizer was close to clinching a $5 billion buyout — albeit with other potential buyers still at the table. The pharma giant, flush with cash from Covid-19 vaccine sales, apparently got out on top.

The deal immediately swells Pfizer’s previously tiny sickle cell disease portfolio from just a Phase I program to one with an approved drug, Oxbryta, plus a whole pipeline that, if all approved, the company believes could make for a $3 billion franchise at peak.

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Chief Scientific Officer

Experimental Drug Development Centre

Singapore

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David Reese, Amgen R&D chief

August 7, 2022 08:02 AM EDTUpdated 19 hours ago

R&D

Pharma

UPDATED: In a fresh disappointment, Amgen spotlights a major safety issue with KRAS combo

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Amgen had hoped that its latest study matching its landmark KRAS G12C drug Lumakras with checkpoint inhibitors would open up its treatment horizons and expand its commercial potential. Instead, the combo spurred safety issues that blunted efficacy and forced the pharma giant to alter course on its treatment strategy, once again disappointing analysts who have been tracking the drug’s faltering sales and limited therapeutic reach.

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FDA commissioner Rob Califf (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

August 8, 2022 02:15 PM EDT

FDA+

Law

With drug pricing almost done, Congress looks to wrap up FDA user fee legislation

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

The Senate won’t return from its summer recess until Sept. 6, but when it does, it officially has 18 business days to finalize the reauthorization of the FDA user fee programs for the next 5 years, or else thousands of drug and biologics reviewers will be laid off and PDUFA dates will vanish in the interim.

FDA commissioner Rob Califf recently sent agency staff a memo explaining how, “Our latest estimates are that we have carryover for PDUFA [Prescription Drug User Fee Act], the user fee funding program that will run out of funding first, to cover only about 5 weeks into the next fiscal year.”

Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca CEO (David Zorrakino/Europa Press via AP Images)

August 8, 2022 01:58 PM EDTUpdated 02:58 PM

Pharma

FDA+

AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo sprint to market after FDA clears Enhertu in just two weeks

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

Regulators didn’t keep AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo waiting long at all for their latest Enhertu approval.

The partners pulled a win on Friday in HER2-low breast cancer patients who’ve already failed on chemotherapy, just two weeks after submitting a supplemental BLA. While this isn’t the FDA’s fastest approval — Bristol Myers Squibb won an OK for its blockbuster checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo in just five days back in March — it comes well ahead of Enhertu’s original Q4 PDUFA date.

Steve Paul, Karuna Therapeutics CEO (Third Rock)

August 8, 2022 08:58 AM EDTUpdated 10:13 AM

R&D

Karuna's schizophrenia drug passes a closely-watched PhIII test, will head to FDA in mid-2023

Kyle LaHucik

Associate Editor

An investigational pill that combines a former Eli Lilly CNS compound with an overactive bladder drug was better than placebo at reducing a scale of symptoms experienced by patients with schizophrenia in a Phase III trial.

Karuna Therapeutics’ drug passed the primary goal in EMERGENT-2, the Boston biotech said early Monday morning, alongside quarterly earnings. The study is the first of Karuna’s four Phase III clinical trials to read out in schizophrenia and will provide the backbone to the biotech’s first drug approval application, slated for mid-2023.

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Senior Project Manager

CAI

Boston, MA, USA

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August 8, 2022 02:14 PM EDTUpdated 02:33 PM

Pharma

GSK and IQVIA launch platform of US vaccination data, showing drop in adult rates

Tyler Patchen

News Reporter

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the issue of vaccine uptake has been a point of contention, but a new platform from GSK and IQVIA is hoping to shed more light on vaccine data, via new transparency and general awareness.

The two companies have launched Vaccine Track, a platform intended to be used by public health officials, medical professionals and others to strengthen data transparency and display vaccination trends. According to the companies, the platform is intended to aid in increasing vaccine rates and will provide data on trends to assist public health efforts.

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August 8, 2022 02:05 PM EDT

Pharma

Marketing

AbbVie surveys emotional impact of chronic leukemia condition, finds 'roller coaster' of emotions

Beth Snyder Bulik

Senior Editor

Rare diseases often have more than just physical effects on patients — especially when it comes to chronic conditions. In the case of the rare slow-growing blood cancer chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), AbbVie wanted to try to assess the mental and emotional toll on patients.

So it surveyed more than 300 CLL patients, caregivers and physicians. While each group differed in how they felt — caregivers overwhelmingly (81%) felt positive about their role, for instance — patients described a “roller coaster” of emotions traversing diagnosis to treatment to remission and even relapse for some.