Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, Novo Nordisk CEO (Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

No­vo Nordisk to spend $747M+ on ex­pan­sions and new fa­cil­i­ty in Den­mark

The Dan­ish phar­ma gi­ant No­vo Nordisk is mak­ing a ma­jor ex­pan­sion close to home.

The com­pa­ny an­nounced on Tues­day that it plans to in­vest 5.4 bil­lion Dan­ish kro­ner ($747.2 mil­lion) in­to ex­pand­ing its ex­ist­ing fa­cil­i­ties in its home­town of Bagsværd, Den­mark, a sub­urb of Copen­hagen. Those plans al­so in­clude the con­struc­tion of a new plant.

A No­vo Nordisk spokesper­son did not con­firm the size of the new plant to End­points News by press time. How­ev­er, they did tell End­points that de­spite the ex­pan­sion of ex­ist­ing fa­cil­i­ties, the man­u­fac­tur­ing of ac­tive phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal in­gre­di­ents (API) is cur­rent­ly on­go­ing to sup­port clin­i­cal tri­als. The ex­pan­sions are ex­pect­ed to be fi­nal­ized and ful­ly op­er­a­tional in Au­gust of next year for pu­rifi­ca­tion. The new fa­cil­i­ty, which is cen­tered around fer­men­ta­tion and re­cov­ery, is ex­pect­ed to be fi­nal­ized in Au­gust 2024.

No­vo Nordisk al­so plans to cre­ate more ca­pac­i­ty for R&D ac­tiv­i­ties and the pro­duc­tion of APIs, main­ly to sup­ply its clin­i­cal tri­als as well as pro­vide room for fu­ture de­vel­op­ment for its in­jecta­bles and oral med­i­cines, in­clud­ing in the di­a­betes and obe­si­ty treat­ment space, ac­cord­ing to the spokesper­son.

“This in­vest­ment in ex­pand­ing our clin­i­cal API ca­pac­i­ty in Bagsværd is an im­por­tant step to en­sure the con­tin­u­ous progress of our de­vel­op­ment pipeline. In­creas­ing our API ca­pac­i­ty in R&D will be a key en­abler in bring­ing new in­no­va­tions to the mar­ket, and meet the fu­ture de­mand of our pa­tients,” said Jes­per Bøv­ing, se­nior vice pres­i­dent of CMC de­vel­op­ment at No­vo Nordisk, in a state­ment.

This is not the first time the com­pa­ny has dropped a mas­sive amount for API man­u­fac­tur­ing. Ac­cord­ing to the North Car­oli­na Biotech­nol­o­gy Cen­ter, the com­pa­ny in 2019 spent $1.8 bil­lion on a fac­to­ry meant for No­vo Nordisk’s di­a­betes med­i­cines at its site in Clay­ton, NC. The project mea­sured 833,000 square feet and was re­port­ed at the time to be the largest man­u­fac­tur­ing in­vest­ment in the state’s his­to­ry.

The in­vest­ment in Den­mark al­so comes as the com­pa­ny put two pro­grams in obe­si­ty and car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease on the chop­ping block in its re­cent Q3 re­port. The com­pa­ny’s hop­ing for a Q4 re­bound for We­govy, its weight loss drug that ran in­to “un­prece­dent­ed de­mand” on top of man­u­fac­tur­ing is­sues last year.

Has the mo­ment fi­nal­ly ar­rived for val­ue-based health­care?

RBC Capital Markets’ Healthcare Technology Analyst, Sean Dodge, spotlights a new breed of tech-enabled providers who are rapidly transforming the way clinicians deliver healthcare, and explores the key question: can this accelerating revolution overturn the US healthcare system?

Key points

Tech-enabled healthcare providers are poised to help the US transition to value, not volume, as the basis for reward.
The move to value-based care has policy momentum, but is risky and complex for clinicians.
Outsourced tech specialists are emerging to provide the required expertise, while healthcare and tech are also converging through M&A.
Value-based care remains in its early stages, but the transition is accelerating and represents a huge addressable market.

Clay Siegall, Morphimmune CEO

Up­dat­ed: Ex-Seagen chief Clay Sie­gall emerges as CEO of pri­vate biotech

Clay Siegall will be back in the CEO seat, taking the helm of a private startup working on targeted cancer therapies.

It’s been almost a year since Siegall resigned from Seagen, the biotech he co-founded and led for more than 20 years, in the wake of domestic violence allegations by his then-wife. His eventual successor, David Epstein, sold the company to Pfizer in a $43 billion deal unveiled last week.

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In­cyte hit by CRL on ex­tend­ed-re­lease JAK tablets, mud­dy­ing plans for Jakafi fran­chise ex­pan­sion

The FDA has rejected Incyte’s extended-release formulation of ruxolitinib tablets, in a surprise setback for the company’s plans to build on its blockbuster Jakafi franchise.

The ruxolitinib XR tablets are designed to be taken once a day, whereas Jakafi is indicated for twice daily dosage (although some patients can take it once daily).

According to Incyte, the FDA acknowledged in its complete response letter that the study submitted in the NDA “met its objective of bioequivalence based on area under the curve (AUC) parameters but identified additional requirements for approval.”

Zhi Hong, Brii Biosciences CEO

Brii Bio­sciences stops man­u­fac­tur­ing Covid-19 an­ti­body com­bo, plans to with­draw EUA re­quest

Brii Biosciences said it will stop manufacturing its Covid-19 antibody combination, sold in China, and is working to withdraw its emergency use authorization request in the US, which it started in October 2021.

The Beijing and North Carolina biotech commercially launched the treatment in China last July but is now axing the work and reverting resources to other “high-priority programs,” per a Friday update. The focus now is namely hepatitis B viral infection, postpartum depression and major depressive disorders.

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FDA ad­vi­sors unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend ac­cel­er­at­ed ap­proval for Bio­gen's ALS drug

A panel of outside advisors to the FDA unanimously recommended that the agency grant accelerated approval to Biogen’s ALS drug tofersen despite the drug failing the primary goal of its Phase III study, an endorsement that could pave a path forward for the treatment.

By a 9-0 vote, members of the Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee said there was sufficient evidence that tofersen’s effect on a certain protein associated with ALS is reasonably likely to predict a benefit for patients. But panelists stopped short of advocating for a full approval, voting 3-5 against (with one abstention) and largely citing the failed pivotal study.

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Sergio Traversa, Relmada Therapeutics CEO

Rel­ma­da makes 'crit­i­cal changes' to PhI­II tri­al to try and save de­pres­sion drug

Relmada Therapeutics is making changes to its Phase III study of its lead drug for major depressive disorder, in an attempt to avoid problems with a prior trial that showed little difference between the drug and a placebo.

That failure in October wiped 80% from Relmada’s stock price, and was followed by another negative readout a few months later. In both cases, the company said that there had been trial sites that were associated with what it called surprising placebo effects that skewed the results compared with the drug, REL-1017.

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Paul Song, NKGen Biotech CEO

NK cell ther­a­py-fo­cused biotech eyes SPAC deal

A small, Santa Ana-based biotech created in 2017 is looking to enter a SPAC deal as it lays out plans to begin trials in its lead cell therapy candidates and bring on new executives.

Graf Acquisition Corp. IV and NKGen Biotech announced Thursday, with few other details, that the two companies signed a non-binding letter of intent to “pursue a business combination.” Graf Acquisition II and III withdrew their IPOs last year.

Peter Hecht, Cyclerion Therapeutics CEO

Hard pressed for cash, Cy­cle­ri­on looks for help fund­ing rare dis­ease drug

Cyclerion Therapeutics may have the design of a Phase IIb study ready to go, but it’s scrambling for a way to fund it.

The company said in a press release that it’s “actively evaluating the best combination of capital, capabilities, and transactions available to it to advance the development of zagociguat,” its lead candidate for a rare, genetic mitochondrial disease known as MELAS.

In a separate SEC filing, Cyclerion once again flagged “substantial doubt about (its) ability to continue as a going concern.” As of the end of 2022, it had cash and cash equivalents of only $13.4 million.

Eu­ro­pean Com­mis­sion de­lays pro­pos­al for ma­jor changes to phar­ma leg­is­la­tion

The European Commission has once again delayed the release of its proposal for an overhaul of the continent’s pharmaceutical legislation.

The release, previously anticipated on March 29, will occur “slightly later” than expected due to the “very busy College agendas of the last few weeks,” a Commission spokesperson told Endpoints News via email.

While the agency hasn’t provided an updated timeline, the spokesperson said the agenda is “always indicative and adoption dates of Commission proposals may change any time, especially when these proposals concern reforms of complex legislations of major importance.”