How badly does Sanofi chief Paul Hudson want Principia? Enough to ink a $3.7B buyout deal, doubling down on MS

Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson

August 16, 2020 08:10 PM EDTUpdated 06:50 AM

How badly does Sanofi chief Paul Hudson want Principia? Enough to ink a $3.7B buyout deal, doubling down on MS

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson has a home for a chunk of that Regeneron money sitting in the bank.

The pharma exec is shelling out $100 a share to take out Principia $PRNB — helmed by Martin Babler — and the MS drug that Hudson has been talking up for months as a breakthrough in the field. That’s a $3.7 billion deal.

Principia has a whole portfolio of BTK inhibitors in the pipeline, but it’s ‘168 that is the jewel in the crown for Hudson, a partnered drug which he is now doubling down on to help push the “ongoing R&D transformation” at Sanofi. Beyond MS the brain-penetrating drug has potential in other CNS diseases, offering a potential pipeline in a product.

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Stephen Hahn, FDA commissioner (AP Images)

October 20, 2020 10:21 AM EDTUpdated 10:48 AM

Regulatory

Coronavirus

As FDA sets the stage for the first Covid-19 vaccine EUAs, some big players are asking for a tweak of the guidelines

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Setting the stage for an extraordinary one-day meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee this Thursday, the FDA has cleared 2 experts of financial conflicts to help beef up the committee. And regulators went on to specify the safety, efficacy and CMC input they’re looking for on EUAs, before they move on to the full BLA approval process.

All of this has already been spelled out to the developers. But the devil is in the details, and it’s clear from the first round of posted responses that some of the top players — including J&J and Pfizer — would like some adjustments and added feedback. And on Thursday, the experts can offer their own thoughts on shaping the first OKs.

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A new chapter in the decentralized clinical trial approach

Alison Holland

Head of Decentralized and Remote trials

Despite the promised decentralized trial revolution, we haven’t yet moved the needle in a significant way, although we are seeing far bolder commitments to this as we continue to experience the pandemic restrictions for some time to come. The vision of grandeur is one thing, but operationalizing and execution are another and recognising that change, particularly mid-flight on studies, is worthy of thorough evaluation and consideration in order to achieve success. Here we will discuss one of the critical building blocks of a Decentralized and Remote Trial strategy: TeleConsent; more than paper under glass, it is a paradigm change and key digital enabler.

Michel Vounatsos, Biogen CEO (via YouTube)

October 21, 2020 08:11 AM EDTUpdated 10:22 AM

R&D

UPDATED: Biogen spotlights a pair of painful pipeline setbacks as aducanumab showdown looms at the FDA

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Biogen has flagged a pair of setbacks in the pipeline, spotlighting the final failure for a one-time top MS prospect while scrapping a gene therapy for SMA after the IND was put on hold due to toxicity.

Both failures will raise the stakes even higher on aducanumab, the Alzheimer’s drug that Biogen is betting the ranch on, determined to pursue an FDA OK despite significant skepticism they can make it with mixed results and a reliance on post hoc data mining. And the failures are being reported as Biogen was forced to cut its profit forecast for 2020 as a generic rival started to erode their big franchise drug.

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Clinical Operations Lead

Vigeo Therapeutics

Cambridge, MA

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Giovanni Caforio, Bristol Myers Squibb CEO (Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

October 20, 2020 02:34 PM EDT

Deals

Here's how Bristol Myers' CEO Giovanni Caforio completed a $13B buyout: He moved fast, upped the bid quickly and demanded everyone to keep up

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Bristol Myers Squibb CEO Giovanni Caforio does not waste time. He also likes everyone around him to keep up.

Anyone reading over the insider account filed with the SEC of the back-and-forth over his $13 billion buyout of MyoKardia $MYOK could reach only one conclusion: The CEO who had willingly crafted a $74 billion Celgene acquisition had found something else he liked — and he was willing to pay a nice premium to get it.

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October 21, 2020 11:03 AM EDT

R&D

Years after a major trial setback, Novartis switches gears with SMA drug. This time they're trying it for Huntington's

Nicole DeFeudis

Associate Editor

Four years after a Phase I/II setback in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), Novartis is hoping its drug branaplam will find more success in a new neurological indication: Huntington’s disease.

The decision was announced a year after the head of research, Jay Bradner, said he did not see a “big opportunity” in SMA, according to Reuters. Novartis says it has preclinical data showing that branaplam reduces levels of mutant huntingtin protein, and SMA data showing patients on the drug had reductions in huntingtin mRNA. The FDA gave branaplam their orphan drug designation, and Novartis plans to move forth with a Phase IIb trial next year.

October 21, 2020 10:39 AM EDT

Regulatory

Little Zosano takes another beating as the FDA slaps down their application for a migraine patch

Max Gelman

Associate Editor

Zosano $ZSAN has officially come up short in its bid to develop a migraine patch.

The FDA rejected the company’s application to repurpose the triptan zolmitriptan in a new delivery system as Qtrypta, Zosano said Wednesday morning, issuing a CRL for the microneedle patch. Regulators cited inconsistent exposure levels across multiple clinical trials as the main reason for the thumbs down.

Investors did not take too kindly to the news, with Zosano shares plunking down around 25%. The company is requesting a Type A meeting to “provide clarity on the next steps for the program,” CEO Steven Lo said in a statement.

October 21, 2020 10:38 AM EDT

R&D

GlaxoSmithKline's vaccines group aims for a first as it kicks off PhIII RSV studies

Amber Tong

Editor

One of GlaxoSmithKline’s big projects at its global vaccine R&D center in Rockville, MD is set to enter Phase III after passing early-stage tests with flying colors.

Eyeing the wide-open respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) space, GSK is pushing two different vaccine candidates: GSK3888550A is designed to confer protection to infants via maternal immunization, while GSK3844766A is meant for the elderly.

ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Director of Regulatory Affairs

Recursion Pharmaceuticals

Salt Lake City, UT

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Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

October 21, 2020 08:53 AM EDTUpdated 09:56 AM

Coronavirus

Pfizer is on the verge of claiming a multibillion-dollar first-mover advantage with their Covid-19 vaccine — analyst

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

From the beginning, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla eschewed government funding for his Covid-19 vaccine work with BioNTech, willing to take all the $2 billion-plus risk of a lightning-fast development campaign in exchange for all the rewards that could fall its way with success. And now that the pharma giant has seized a solid lead in the race to the market, those rewards loom large.

SVB Leerink’s Geoff Porges has been running the numbers on Pfizer’s vaccine, the mRNA BNT162b2 program that the German biotech partnered on. And he sees a $3.5 billion peak in windfall revenue next year alone. Even after the pandemic is brought to heel, though, Porges sees a continuing blockbuster role for this vaccine as people around the world look to guard against a new, thoroughly endemic virus that will pose a permanent threat.

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October 21, 2020 07:00 AM EDTUpdated 09:51 AM

R&D

Cell/Gene Tx

UPDATED: CRISPR Therapeutics gets a snapshot of off-the-shelf CAR-T success in B-cell malignancies — marred by the death of a patient

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Just days after scientific founder Emmanuelle Charpentier shared the Nobel prize for her work on CRISPR/Cas9, CRISPR Therapeutics $CRSP is showing off a snapshot of success in their early-stage study for an off-the-shelf CAR-T approach to CD19+ B cell malignancies — a snapshot marred by the death of a patient who had been given a high dose of the treatment.

Using their gene editing tech, researchers for CRISPR engineered cells from healthy donors into an attack vehicle aimed at cancer, something that has been achieved with great success using patients’ own cells — the autologous approach. But autologous CAR-T is hampered by the more complex vein-to-vein requirement that delays treatment, and now CRISPR Therapeutics along with other players like Allogene are determined to replace the pioneers with CAR-T 2.0.

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