NASH is a big in­di­ca­tion with plen­ty of ben­e­fits to the first com­pa­ny that can suc­cess­ful­ly get a work­ing drug on the mar­ket. And ac­cord­ing to one US biotech, a Chi­nese com­pa­ny stole trade se­crets in or­der to get a head start.

Viking Ther­a­peu­tics is su­ing Chi­nese biotech As­cle­tis Phar­ma in Cal­i­for­nia dis­trict court, claim­ing that As­cle­tis es­sen­tial­ly duped the biotech in­to di­vulging its trade se­crets to the com­pa­ny and gave As­cle­tis the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­lease its own drug prod­uct to di­rect­ly com­pete with Viking.

Ac­cord­ing to the com­plaint filed on Dec. 29, Viking’s lead can­di­date, VK2809, is a se­lec­tive ag­o­nist of thy­roid hor­mone re­cep­tor be­ta (THRβ) in Phase II tri­als and de­signed to treat meta­bol­ic dis­or­ders like high cho­les­terol, NAFLD and NASH. In 2016, Viking claimed that As­cle­tis re­quest­ed to meet Viking in San Fran­cis­co at the BIO In­ter­na­tion­al Con­ven­tion that year about a po­ten­tial col­lab­o­ra­tion on Viking’s can­di­date, and both com­pa­nies agreed to sign a con­fi­den­tial­i­ty agree­ment be­fore mov­ing for­ward. Af­ter sign­ing, Viking said that it shared in­for­ma­tion about the can­di­date with As­cle­tis, but the col­lab­o­ra­tion did not move for­ward.

Fast for­ward to 2019, when As­cle­tis again ap­proached Viking about a “po­ten­tial busi­ness op­por­tu­ni­ty re­gard­ing VK2809.” The two par­ties then signed a con­fi­den­tial­i­ty agree­ment, and Viking shared in­for­ma­tion about the drug. Af­ter re­view­ing it for al­most a month, As­cle­tis backed out again, Viking said in the court docs. Five months af­ter back­ing out, Viking says it dis­cov­ered that As­cle­tis founder and CEO Ja­son Wu found­ed an­oth­er com­pa­ny called Gan­nex Phar­ma, a sub­sidiary of As­cle­tis.

Viking then went on to say that in ear­ly 2020, Gan­nex start­ed sub­mit­ting patent ap­pli­ca­tions in Chi­na and in the US that con­tained Viking trade se­crets re­lat­ed to VK2809. Viking found out about what it called the “theft and im­prop­er dis­clo­sure” of Viking’s trade se­crets in 2021 af­ter the patents were pub­lished.

Viking said that the com­pa­ny, which has now done sev­er­al clin­i­cal tri­als for two dif­fer­ent drug can­di­dates, “could not have so quick­ly ad­vanced their de­vel­op­ment, test­ing, and com­mer­cial­iza­tion ef­forts with­out breach­ing the CDAs and im­prop­er­ly and in­ten­tion­al­ly mis­us­ing Viking Trade Se­crets to Viking’s detri­ment.”

As­cle­tis said in a re­lease on Mon­day that as of its an­nounce­ment, the com­pa­ny had not yet been served with the com­plaints — one filed in Cal­i­for­nia, and an­oth­er filed with the Unit­ed States In­ter­na­tion­al Trade Com­mis­sion. How­ev­er, the com­pa­ny added that it be­lieves the ac­cu­sa­tions “have no mer­it and will vig­or­ous­ly de­fend against the Com­plaints.”

This is the lat­est from the US biotech since FDA lift­ed a clin­i­cal hold on Viking’s X-linked adrenoleukody­s­tro­phy (X-ALD) pro­gram last year af­ter Viking pre­sent­ed an FDA-re­quest­ed ro­dent geno­tox­i­c­i­ty study.

President Joe Biden made clear in his “finish the job” State of the Union address last night that one of those jobs to be finished is insulin prices.

Biden’s push again to tackle insulin prices, after Republicans rebuffed the idea last summer and just after Biden won Medicare drug price negotiations/caps via the Inflation Reduction Act, shows how heavily he’s leaning into this work.

Six weeks into his new role at the helm of Teva Pharmaceutical, Richard Francis said it’s time to “get back to growth,” starting with a good look at the company’s priorities.

The chief executive has kicked off a strategic review, he announced during Teva’s quarterly call, which will continue over the next several months and produce results sometime in the middle of 2023. That means some pipeline cuts may be in store, he told Endpoints News, while declining to offer much more detail.

We now know where Roche’s ex-pharma chief Bill Anderson is going.

German pharma giant Bayer announced Wednesday that Anderson will be taking on the role as CEO, less than six weeks after Anderson stepped down from his perch at Roche as head of the group’s pharmaceutical division.

Roche announced back in December that Anderson would depart on Dec. 31 to “pursue opportunities outside of Roche.” His replacement, Genentech vet and Roche’s current head of global product strategy, Teresa Graham, will start her role in March.

The DC Circuit Court has struck a blow against the pharmaceutical lobbying group PhRMA and other plaintiffs’ attempt to stop states from importing drugs from Canada.

Joined alongside public health group Partnership for Safe Medicines and advocacy group Council for Affordable Health Coverage, PhRMA was rebuffed by Judge Timothy Kelly on Monday, who dismissed the civil suit due to a lack of standing.