Last Sep­tem­ber, when Pfiz­er cel­e­brat­ed pos­i­tive da­ta from a sec­ond Phase III study of abroc­i­tinib, many watch­ers ap­plaud­ed the ef­fi­ca­cy but were still wait­ing to see whether the JAK1 in­hibitor is “safe enough to be a for­mi­da­ble com­peti­tor to Dupix­ent,” the clear leader in the atopic der­mati­tis field. The full slate of safe­ty da­ta are now out and, ac­cord­ing to one an­a­lyst, the an­swer is: prob­a­bly not.

The broad­er class of JAK in­hibitors has been plagued by se­ri­ous side ef­fects re­lat­ing to blood that threat­en to lim­it their adop­tion, and JAK1 drugs — which tar­get a more spe­cif­ic sub­type of the ki­nase — are still un­der heavy scruti­ny.

In a note, Jef­feries’ Re­gen­eron bull Biren Amin sin­gled out re­duc­tions in platelet count in JADE MONO-2 as a par­tic­u­lar cause for con­cern.

At week 4, platelet re­duc­tions of 26% were not­ed for the 200mg dose, 19% in the 100mg group, and less than 1% for those on place­bo. In the drug’s de­fense, the re­searchers wrote that platelet counts “re­turned to­wards base­line val­ues there­after de­spite con­tin­u­a­tion of treat­ment,” and that there were no re­ports of bleed­ing dis­or­ders in any treat­ment group.

Still, the fact that the mech­a­nism lead­ing to platelet re­duc­tions is un­known could be a con­cern, Amin not­ed.

Then there’s the da­ta point that 1.9% of pa­tients in the 100mg group re­port­ed a se­ri­ous in­fec­tion, com­pared to none on 200mg and 1.3% on place­bo. Her­pes zoster was ob­served in 2 pa­tients tak­ing 200mg (1.3%).

In Ab­b­Vie’s case, Amin point­ed out, 1% of pa­tients re­port­ing se­ri­ous in­fec­tions, op­por­tunis­tic in­fec­tions and her­pes zoster was enough for reg­u­la­tors to slap a black box warn­ing on Rin­voq’s rheuma­toid arthri­tis la­bel.

“Tak­en to­geth­er, giv­en the safe­ty sig­nals around con­cerns for JAK1i class, ini­tial adop­tion of abroc­i­tinib might be lim­it­ed to se­vere pa­tients or on­ly be used as a short course of in­duc­tion be­fore switch­ing pa­tients to oth­er ther­a­pies to re­duce the ex­po­sure,” he wrote.

For now, Pfiz­er is fo­cus­ing on the bright side, em­pha­siz­ing how abroc­i­tinib can of­fer po­ten­tial symp­tom re­lief to pa­tients — in­clud­ing the both­er­some itch that comes with mod­er­ate to se­vere atopic der­mati­tis. The rate of ad­verse events over­all was al­so low in the tri­al, back­ing the claim that the drug was well-tol­er­at­ed. Abroc­i­tinib is al­so giv­en in pill form rather than sub­cu­ta­neous­ly, of­fer­ing pa­tients a more con­ve­nient choice.

But as Sanofi and Re­gen­eron con­tin­ue to groom Dupix­ent — the prize gem of a fore­gone re­la­tion­ship that gen­er­at­ed $2.32 bil­lion in 2019 rev­enue — in­to an even big­ger block­buster, the fight is on­ly be­gin­ning to play out.

GSK, newly branded and soon-to-be demerged, shared interim results from its Phase II trial on its chronic hepatitis B treatment, one that it says has the “potential to lead to a functional cure.”

At a presentation at the EASL International Liver Congress, GSK shared that in around 450 patients who received its hep B drug bepirovirsen for 24 weeks, just under 30% had hepatitis B surface antigen and viral DNA levels that were too low to detect.

Despite whispers of a busy year for M&A, deal activity in the pharma space is actually down 30% on a semi-annualized basis, according to PwC’s latest report on deal activity. But don’t rule out larger deals in the second half of the year, the consultants said.

PwC pharmaceutical and life sciences consulting solutions leader Glenn Hunzinger expects to see Big Pharma companies picking up earlier stage companies to try and fill pipeline gaps ahead of a slew of big patent cliffs. Though a bear market continues to maul the biotech sector, Hunzinger said recent deals indicate that pharma companies are still paying above current trading prices.

Following the Supreme Court’s historic decision on Friday to overturn Americans’ constitutional right to an abortion after almost 50 years, Attorney General Merrick Garland sought to somewhat reassure women that states will not be able to ban the prescription drug sometimes used for abortions.

Following the decision, the New England Journal of Medicine also published an editorial strongly condemning the reversal, saying it “serves American families poorly, putting their health, safety, finances, and futures at risk.”

The story of Amryt Pharma’s candidate for the genetic skin condition epidermolysis bullosa, or EB, will soon enter another chapter.

After the Irish drugmaker’s candidate, dubbed Oleogel-S10 and marketed as Filsuvez, was handed a CRL earlier this year, the company announced in a press release that it plans to submit a formal dispute resolution request for the company’s NDA for Oleogel-S10.

Sometimes, being late can give you an advantage.

That’s what Sanofi and GSK are trying to say as the Big Pharma partners report positive results from a late-stage trial of their next-gen bivalent Covid-19 vaccine, which was designed to protect against both the original strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the Beta variant. Specifically, against Omicron, they note, the vaccine delivered 72% efficacy in all adults and 93.2% in those previously infected.