NeuroRx secures $95M to fund PhIII for NMDA depression drug; Trump revives science advisory council

October 23, 2019 10:50 AM EDT

NeuroRx secures $95M to fund PhIII for NMDA depression drug; Trump revives science advisory council

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

→ After kicking off a Phase III trial testing its NMDA drug in suicidal bipolar depression, NeuroRx has secured access to around $95 million (HKD$750 million) to complete the program and fund the manufacturing activities. New York-based GEM Global Yield has committed to provide the capital — through purchasing shares — once NeuroRx gets listed on a public market. The biotech, which was founded by biopharma vet Jonathan Javitt and psychiatry researcher Daniel Javitt (the brothers are the CEO and chairman of the scientific advisory board, respectively), can draw as much or as little of the agreed amount within a 30-month term. The plan is to develop NRX-101 in both the US, where it has a breakthrough therapy designation, and China.

→ Donald Trump is finally assembling his President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, almost two years after the group last met in January 2017 just before his inauguration. There’s one biotech executive among the first seven out of 16 members named to the group: Sharon Hrynkow, SVP for Medical Affairs at Cyclo Therapeutics, who had a background in the NIH. Others on the committee include Catherine Bessant, CTO for Bank of America; Dario Gil, director of IBM Research; Fisk Johnson III, CEO of cleaning products company SC Johnson & Son; Attiganal Sreeram, senior vice president of research at Dow; Shane Wall, CTO and head of HP Labs; and UC Berkeley professor Birgitta Whaley.

AUTHOR

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

amber@endpointsnews.com @AmberTongPW

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MedTech clinical trials require a unique regulatory and study design approach and so engaging a highly experienced CRO to ensure compliance and accurate data across all stages is critical to development milestones.

Innovative MedTech Demands Specialist Clinical Trial Regulatory Affairs and Design

Tom Avery

Scientific and Medical Affairs Specialist, Medical Devices

Avance Clinical is the Australian CRO for international biotechs providing world-class clinical research services with FDA-accepted data across all phases. With Avance Clinical, biotech companies can leverage Australia’s supportive clinical trials environment which includes no IND requirement plus a 43.5% Government incentive rebate on clinical spend. The CRO has been delivering clinical drug development services for international biotechs for FDA and EMA regulatory approval for the past 24 years. The company has been recognized for the past two consecutive years with the prestigious Frost & Sullivan CRO Best Practices Award and a finalist in Informa Pharma’s Best CRO award for 2022.

August 12, 2022 09:19 AM EDT

R&D

Pharma

Gold for adults, silver for infants: Pfizer's Prevnar 2.0 headed to FDA months after Merck's green light

Kyle LaHucik

Associate Editor

Pfizer was first to the finish line for the next-gen pneumococcal vaccine in adults, but Merck beat its rival with a jab for children in June.

Now, two months after Merck’s 15-valent Vaxneuvance won the FDA stamp of approval for kids, Pfizer is out with some late-stage data on its 20-valent shot for infants.

Known as Prevnar 20 for adults, Pfizer’s 20vPnC will head to the FDA by the end of this year for an approval request in infants, the Big Pharma said Friday morning. Discussions with the FDA will occur first and more late-stage pediatric trials are expected to read out soon, informing the regulatory pathway in other countries and regions.

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Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) (Francis Chung/E&E News/POLITICO via AP Images)

August 12, 2022 02:02 PM EDT

Pharma

Law

Senate Finance Chair continues his investigation into pharma taxes with requests for Amgen

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

Amgen is the latest pharma company to appear on the radar of Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR), who is investigating the way pharma companies are using subsidiaries in low- or zero-tax countries to lower their tax bills.

Like its peers Merck, AbbVie and Bristol Myers Squibb, Wyden notes how Amgen uses its Puerto Rico operations to consistently pay tax rates that are substantially lower than the U.S. corporate tax rate of 21%, with an effective tax rate of 10.7% in 2020 and 12.1% in 2021.

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Pharma brands are trying to figure out new ways to better reach patients and doctors, but also measure results. (Credit: Shutterstock)

August 12, 2022 02:11 PM EDT

Pharma

Marketing

Do pharma TV and social ads work? Pharma marketing agencies adopting new tech solutions to find out

Beth Snyder Bulik

Senior Editor

It’s a timeworn advertising question — is my ad campaign working? In pharma, that can be an especially difficult question to answer in part because of privacy regulations, but also because the brands spend a lot of money on TV commercials where viewers can’t directly click on an ad.

Healthcare marketing services companies like Lasso and CMI Media Group are trying to change that with new measurement methods and partnerships that aim to get closer to patients’ and physicians’ actions.

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Corey McCann, Pear Therapeutics CEO

August 12, 2022 02:09 PM EDT

Pharma

Pear Therapeutics touts Q2 growth while scaling back full-year goals and chopping 9% of staff

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

Pear Therapeutics set some ambitious goals back in March, predicting a five-fold boost in revenue and a surge in new prescriptions for its digital therapeutics. Now the company is scaling back those estimates and chopping 9% of its workforce — an all-too-common occurrence in biotech lately.

CEO Corey McCann unveiled Pear’s Q2 numbers on Thursday, touting a 20% quarter-over-quarter revenue growth totaling $3.3 million. That’s more than double what the company made in Q2 2021, and McCann thinks the team could see a nearly four-fold jump in revenue this year, falling in the range of $14 million to $16 million.

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August 12, 2022 12:47 PM EDTUpdated 02:10 PM

Pharma

FDA+

FDA approves second indication for AstraZeneca and Daiichi's Enhertu in less than a week

Aayushi Pratap

News Reporter

AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s antibody-drug conjugate Enhertu scored its second approval in less than a week, this time for a subset of lung cancer patients.

Enhertu received accelerated approval on Thursday to treat adults with unresectable or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have activating HER2 (ERBB2) mutations, and who have already received a prior systemic therapy.

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August 12, 2022 12:39 PM EDT

Pharma

J&J to remove talc products from shelves worldwide, replacing with cornstarch-based portfolio

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

After controversially spinning out its talc liabilities and filing for bankruptcy in an attempt to settle 38,000 lawsuits, Johnson & Johnson is now changing up the formula for its baby powder products.

J&J is beginning the transition to an all cornstarch-based baby powder portfolio, the pharma giant announced on Thursday — just months after a federal judge ruled in favor of its “Texas two-step” bankruptcy to settle allegations that its talc products contained asbestos and caused cancer. An appeals court has since agreed to revisit that case.

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CSL is gathering its four business units under a unified brand identity strategy (Credit: CSL company site)

August 12, 2022 12:26 PM EDT

Pharma

Marketing

CSL brings Seqirus, Vifor under parent umbrella brand in identity revamp

Beth Snyder Bulik

Senior Editor

CSL is gathering its brands under the family name umbrella, renaming its vaccine and newly acquired nephrology specialty businesses with the parent initials.

CSL Seqirus and CSL Vifor join CSL Plasma and CSL Behring as the four now uniformly branded business units of the global biopharma. The Seqirus vaccine division was formed in 2015 with the combination of bioCSL and its purchase of Novartis’ flu vaccine business. CSL picked up Vifor Pharma late last year in an $11.7 billion deal for the nephrology, iron deficiency and cardio-renal drug developer.

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Tony Coles, Cerevel CEO

August 11, 2022 07:26 AM EDTUpdated 09:13 AM

Financing

Cerevel takes the public offering route, with a twist — raising big money thanks to rival data

Max Gelman

Senior Editor

As public biotechs seek to climb out of the bear market, a popular strategy to raise cash has been through public offerings on the heels of positive data. But one proposed raise Wednesday appeared to take advantage not of a company’s own data, but those from a competitor.

Cerevel Therapeutics plans to raise $250 million in a public offering and another $250 million in debt, the biotech announced Wednesday afternoon, even though it did not report any news on its pipeline. However, the move comes days after rival Karuna Therapeutics touted positive Phase III data in schizophrenia, a field where Cerevel is pursuing a similar program.

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