→ GSK CEO Em­ma Walm­s­ley has ral­lied to­geth­er with some of the UK’s most suc­cess­ful busi­ness­women to high­light the pay dis­crim­i­na­tion they face in com­par­i­son to their male coun­ter­parts in the cam­paign #MeToo­Pay. The web­site lament­ed the frus­tra­tions of the women, stat­ing, “we’re frus­trat­ed to still read sto­ries about women not get­ting the pay they de­serve. Women should not be paid less than men to do ex­act­ly the same job. It’s just wrong.”

Walm­s­ley’s pay­check is one of the low­est in the in­dus­try — last year earn­ing a $1.3 mil­lion raise with her to­tal re­mu­ner­a­tion be­ing $7.67 mil­lion — trail­ing be­hind her male peers.

→ Al­most a month af­ter Christo­pher Starr co-founder Monopar Ther­a­peu­tics an­nounced the terms for a $40 mil­lion IPO, the com­pa­ny is now post­pon­ing it, cit­ing mar­ket con­di­tions. The com­pa­ny had filed to of­fer 4.4 mil­lion shares at the price range of $8 to $10 and planned to list un­der the tick­er $MN­PR.

→ VIVUS has paid down $48.6 mil­lion of its Se­nior Se­cured Notes due in 2024. CEO of VIVUS, John Amos, said: “The $48.6 mil­lion re­pay­ment an­nounced to­day is the first of these steps and will re­sult in a net sav­ings of in­ter­est of $10.5 mil­lion over the re­main­ing term of the loan.” In ad­di­tion, the com­pa­ny an­nounced the de­par­ture of two of their ex­ecs — pres­i­dent Ken Suh and COO Scott Oehrlein.

→ Months af­ter Ve­rastem nabbed ap­proval for its PI3K drug du­velis­ib (Copik­tra), the com­pa­ny re­ceived more good news this morn­ing with the se­cur­ing of or­phan des­ig­na­tion for the drug for the treat­ment of T-Cell lym­phoma. Cur­rent­ly, Copik­tra is ap­proved for the treat­ment of chron­ic lym­pho­cyt­ic leukemia/small lym­pho­cyt­ic lym­phoma (CLL/SLL) af­ter at least 2 pri­or ther­a­pies and ac­cel­er­at­ed ap­proval in fol­lic­u­lar lym­phoma (FL) af­ter at least 2 pri­or sys­temic ther­a­pies in the US.

→ Weeks after winning EU approval to start marketing dapagliflozin as Forxiga, AstraZeneca has racked up another OK for a triplet combo involving the SGLT2 diabetes drug. Named Qtrilmet, the pill combines Forxiga with the DPP-4 inhibitor Onglyza (saxagliptin) and the bedrock drug metformin in a modified-release format. That 3-in-1 approach proved superior in reducing average blood glucose levels to a number of other dual combinations across 5 Phase III trials, including Forxiga plus metformin, Onglyza with metformin, or glimepiride with metformin.

As is custom, an EMA panel on Friday issued its weekly recommendations on marketing applications submitted by drug developers. This week, the agency backed the use of five new therapies — including two Novartis drugs — but issued no negative reviews.

Novartis’ S1P drug for relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) drug, Mayzent (known chemically as siponimod), which was approved by the FDA in March — has been given the nod by the EMA. The Swiss drugmaker already sells its other MS drug, Gilenya, in both regions.

The folks behind Atomwise’s spinout X-37 like to think in cosmological metaphors, and you can think of their AI drug development model as probes sent into space from a central station. That station just got $14.5 million in Series A funding from DCVC Bio, Alpha Intelligence Capital and Hemi Ventures to back those missions.

X-37 uses Atomwise’s AI platform to identify drug targets and – unlike the parent company, which largely sticks to computers  – bring those into a wet lab and preclinical testing.  In addition to AI professionals, it’s led in by part by drug developers from Velocity Pharmaceutical Development.

→ Abbott Laboratories has named a successor to CEO Miles White after he announced that he was stepping down in March after 21 years of service. Robert Ford, the company’s COO and president, will take the helm. Ford is known for his work in the $25 billion merger between St. Jude Medical into Abbott in January 2017. White will remain with the company as executive chairman of the board. 

→ After snapping up Novartis’ Swiss facility, Novartis Center of Excellence, in July, Lonza has announced that their CEO, Marc Funk, is hitting the exit for “personal reasons.” Funk has been the CEO of the company for less than a year — brought onto the company back in March. In the meantime, chairman Albert Baehny will serve as interim CEO. 

A month after posting positive top-line data from their first Phase III trial of the IL-17A/17F inhibitor bimekizumab, Belgium’s UCB says they’ve added more upbeat results from their second late-stage test in moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.

That leaves the company on track for regulatory submissions in the middle of next year, says CMO Iris Loew-Friedrich.
Their drug beat out a placebo on the co-primaries — a 90% improvement in PASI 90 (the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index) and Investigator Global Assessment (IGA) response of clear or almost clear (IGA 0/1) at week 16, compared to placebo. Investigators also boasted of hitting some key secondaries.
UCB is angling to enter an increasingly crowded market space.
In their first of 3 Phase III studies for bimekizumab, researchers touted top-line wins on statistically significant results on clearing plaque psoriasis, including a victory over J&J’s IL-23 contender Stelara on key endpoints. The drug targets both IL-17A and IL-17F, a modification on the IL-17A strategy laid out for Taltz (Eli Lilly) and Cosentyx (Novartis). And the new group also includes J&J’s Tremfya and AbbVie’s Skyrizi.

Social image: UCB