Merck revs up dealmaking engine ahead of #JPM22, inking collaborations with AI protein design player Absci

Sean McClain, Absci CEO

January 7, 2022 10:39 AM EST

Merck revs up dealmaking engine ahead of #JPM22, inking collaborations with AI protein design player Absci

Max Gelman

Senior Editor

In the year-plus since Roger Perlmutter left his post leading Merck’s R&D efforts, the Big Pharma’s new leadership has continued to pursue an aggressive dealmaking strategy. On Friday, Merck enlisted a new partner as the spree shows no signs of slowing down.

Merck signed a pair of collaborations with Absci aiming to bolster its AI research capabilities, the companies announced Friday. The first is a relatively modest deal on Merck’s end — there are no details about the upfront or milestone payments but the duo said it could lead to more.

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Biotech investors and CEOs see two paths to growth, but are they equally viable?

Noël Brown

Head of US Biotechnology Investment Banking, RBC Capital Markets

The dynamic in the biotech market has been highly volatile in the last few years, from the high peaks immediately after the COVID vaccine in 2021, to the lowest downturns of the last 20 years in 2022. This uncertainty makes calling the exact timing of the market’s turn something of a fool’s errand, according to Dr. Chen Yu, Founder and Managing Partner of TCG Crossover (TCG X). He speaks with RBC’s Noël Brown, Head of US Biotechnology Investment Banking, about the market’s road ahead and two possible paths for growth.

Casey McPherson shows his daughters Rose (left) and Weston around Everlum Bio, a lab that he co-founded to spark a treatment for Rose and others with ultra-rare conditions. (Ilana Panich-Linsman)

October 4, 2022 06:00 AM EDTUpdated 11:21 AM

People

Pharma

In Focus

Father starts lab after intellectual property issues stymie rare disease drug development

Jared Whitlock

Features Editor

Under bright lab lights, Casey McPherson holds his 6-year-old daughter, Rose. His free hand directs Rose’s gaze toward a computer screen with potential clues in treating her one-of-a kind genetic condition.

Gray specks on the screen show her cells that scientists reprogrammed with the goal of zeroing in on a custom medicine. McPherson co-founded the lab, Everlum Bio, to spark a treatment for Rose — and others like her. A regarded singer-songwriter, McPherson never imagined going into drug development.

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Fireside chat between Hal Barron and John Carroll, UKBIO19

October 5, 2022 07:38 AM EDT

Bioregnum

It’s time we talked about biopharma — live in London next week

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Zoom can only go so far. And I think at this stage, we’ve all tested the limits of staying in touch — virtually. So I’m particularly happy now that we’ve revved up the travel machine to point myself to London for the first time in several years.

Whatever events we have lined up, we’ve always built in plenty of opportunities for all of us to get together and talk. For London, live, I plan to be right out front, meeting with and chatting with the small crowd of biopharma people we are hosting on October 12 at Silicon Valley Bank’s London headquarters. And there’s a lengthy mixer at the end I’m most looking forward to, with several networking openings between sessions.

ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Senior Quality Assurance Compliance Specialist

Lonza

Houston, TX, USA

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October 4, 2022 10:00 AM EDTUpdated 9 hours ago

Manufacturing

Takeda to pull key hypoparathyroidism drug from the market after years of manufacturing woes

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

Takeda on Tuesday morning made an announcement that almost 3,000 people with the rare disease known as hypoparathyroidism were fearing.

Due to unresolved supply issues and manufacturing woes, Takeda said it will cut its losses and discontinue its hypoparathyroidism drug, known as Natpara (parathyroid hormone), halting all manufacturing of the drug by the end of 2024, but the entire inventory will be available until depleted or expired, a company spokesperson said via email.

Tim Miller, Forge Biologics CEO

October 5, 2022 02:25 PM EDT

Deals

Cell/Gene Tx

Manufacturing

CNS-focused gene therapy biotech forges manufacturing deal for hearing loss drug

Paul Schloesser

Associate Editor

A growing gene therapy company is teaming up with one of the largest gene therapy manufacturers to get its drug into patients in clinical trials.

Myrtelle announced on Monday that it inked a deal with Forge Biologics to make Myr-201, a gene therapy indicated for monogenic hearing loss. The target patient population, Myrtelle said, is people with a type of hearing loss called DFNB8, or autosomal recessive deafness 8.

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Pfizer and BioNTech's original Marvel comic book links evolving Covid vaccine science to Avengers' evolving villain-fighting tools.(Source: Pfizer LinkedIn post)

October 5, 2022 02:23 PM EDT

Pharma

Marketing

Pfizer, BioNTech partner with Marvel for Avengers and Covid-fighting comic book

Beth Snyder Bulik

Senior Editor

Pfizer and BioNTech are collaborating with Marvel to celebrate “everyday” people getting Covid-19 vaccines in a custom comic book.

In the “Everyday Heroes” digital comic book, an evolving Ultron, one of the Avengers’ leading villains, is defeated by Captain America, Ironman and others. The plotline and history of Ultron is explained by a grandfather who is waiting with his family at a clinic for Covid-19 vaccinations.

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October 5, 2022 11:28 AM EDTUpdated 12:57 PM

FDA+

FDA+ roundup: Adcomm date set for Cytokinetics heart drug; New generic drug guidance to reduce facility delays

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

The FDA on Wednesday set Dec. 13 as the day that its Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee will review Cytokinetics’ potential heart drug, meaning regulators aren’t likely to meet the Nov. 30 PDUFA date that was previously set.

The drug, known as omecamtiv mecarbil, read out its first Phase III in November 2020, hitting the primary endpoint of reducing the odds of hospitalization or other urgent care for heart failure by 8%. But it also missed a key secondary endpoint analysts had pegged as the key to breaking into the market, failing to significantly differ in reducing cardiovascular death from placebo.

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Head of Quality Systems

Lonza

Lexington, MA, USA

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Carolyn Bertozzi (Illustration: Assistant editor Kathy Wong for Endpoints News)

October 5, 2022 07:43 AM EDTUpdated 11:03 AM

People

Carolyn Bertozzi, repeat biotech founder and launcher of a field, shares in chemistry Nobel win

Kyle LaHucik

Associate Editor

Carolyn Bertozzi, predicted by some to become a Nobel laureate, clinched one of the world’s top awards in the wee hours of Wednesday, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside a repeat winner and a Copenhagen researcher.

The Stanford professor, Morten Meldal of University of Copenhagen and 2001-awardee K. Barry Sharpless of Scripps shared the prize equally. The Nobel is sometimes split in quarters and/or halves.

October 5, 2022 03:20 PM EDT

Pharma

Law

Eli Lilly and Teva prepare for court battle over migraine med rivalry

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

It looks like Eli Lilly and Teva Pharmaceuticals are going to trial.

A federal appeals court on Monday refused to invalidate three of Teva’s patents for its migraine treatment Ajovy, while also declining to issue a summary judgment in favor of either company, which would effectively end the case without a full trial.

Teva filed suit against Lilly back in 2018, alleging that the company infringed upon nine patents with its rival migraine drug Emgality. The rival drugs were both approved in September 2018 for the preventative treatment of migraine, and are designed to block calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), a protein associated with the onset of migraine pain.

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