Five years after little Leo Pharma put up its dukes and $115 million in cash to acquire and advance tralokinumab for atopic dermatitis, the Danish biotech has crossed the regulatory finish lines with a year-end approval at the FDA.

The drug will be sold as Adbry and there’s no immediate word on pricing.

This is the 50th new drug approval from CDER this year, totting up to 60 for the year if you add 10 major biologic OKs to the mix. That marks a record number of new approvals from the agency, tipping the scales after hitting 59 in 2020 and 2018. And it’s an indication that despite a long litany of setbacks in CMC in other areas, the drumbeat of new approvals continues at chart-topping levels after the long and disastrous dry spell of the early 2000s — despite a global pandemic.

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The FDA has approved the world’s first gene therapy for hemophilia B, ushering into the market a treatment that’s historic in both what it promises to do and how much it will cost.

CSL will be marketing the drug, Hemgenix, at a list price of $3.5 million — which sets a new record for the most expensive single-use gene therapy in the US.

In a statement provided to Endpoints News, the Australian company noted that the current costs of treating people with moderate to severe hemophilia B can be significant over a lifetime. By some estimates, healthcare systems could spend more than $20 million per person.

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Merck is making an acquisition, the Big Pharma announced before Monday’s opening bell. No, Seagen is not entering the fold, as had been speculated for quarters.

Folding under Merck’s wings will be Pfizer-backed Imago BioSciences. For nearly a year, Merck CEO Rob Davis has been saying the pharma giant needs to “do more” on the business development front after its 2021 $11.5 billion acquisition of Acceleron.

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GSK is pulling its BCMA-targeting drug from the US market, ending a short, two-year run for a high-profile product that, among other things, was hailed for marking the pharma giant’s return to oncology.

The company is initiating the process for withdrawal at the request of the FDA, which in turn was based on the negative readout of a confirmatory Phase III trial earlier this month. In that trial, GSK’s Blenrep failed to extend progression-free survival over standard of care for patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least two prior lines of therapy.

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