Pfiz­er $PFE may have made an abrupt ex­it out of the neu­ro­sciences R&D are­na, but it’s still in­ter­est­ed in back­ing the biotechs will­ing to nav­i­gate the ul­tra-high risk field.

De­nis Patrick

The phar­ma gi­ant to­day more than dou­bled its com­mit­ment to its ven­ture arm, adding $600 mil­lion in fire­pow­er and de­vot­ing $150 mil­lion of that for new rounds back­ing up­starts in the neu­ro­sciences world.

Pfiz­er Ven­tures has al­ready backed a small group of play­ers in the field: Aquin­nah, Au­ti­fony, Cor­texyme, MindIm­mune, MIS­SION, and Neu­ro­net­ics. The com­pa­ny al­so helped in the cre­ation, fund­ing and launch of the De­men­tia Dis­cov­ery Fund in 2015.

Now it will go deep­er, fo­cus­ing on neu­ro-de­gen­er­a­tion, neu­ro-in­flam­ma­tion and neu­ro-meta­bol­ic dis­or­ders. 

Pfiz­er spent bil­lions of dol­lars on at­tempts at de­vel­op­ing Alzheimer’s drugs, but nev­er got close to the fin­ish line. Its re­cent de­ci­sion to ter­mi­nate its in­ter­nal fo­cus on neu­ro­sciences trig­gered a move to ax about 300 staffers. 

“By chang­ing the way we in­vest in neu­ro­science, we hope to sup­port an en­er­gized com­mu­ni­ty of biotech en­tre­pre­neurs who are pro­gress­ing the un­der­stand­ing of the mol­e­c­u­lar mech­a­nisms of neu­ro­log­ic dis­eases and help ad­vance po­ten­tial treat­ments for peo­ple with neu­ro­log­i­cal con­di­tions,” said De­nis Patrick, the man­ag­ing part­ner of Pfiz­er Ven­tures.

Patrick, Las­z­lo Kiss, Mar­gi McLough­lin, Chris O’Don­nell and Niko­la Tr­bovic are join­ing the phar­ma gi­ant’s ven­ture team, which will al­so stay fo­cused on on­col­o­gy, in­flam­ma­tion and im­munol­o­gy, rare dis­ease, in­ter­nal med­i­cine and vac­cines.

The first batch of pivotal data on Autolus Therapeutics’ CAR-T is in, and execs are ready to plot a path to market.

With an overall remission rate of 70% at the interim analysis featuring 50 patients, the results set the stage for a BLA filing by the end of 2023, said CEO Christian Itin.

Perhaps more importantly — given that Autolus’ drug, obe-cel, is going after an indication that Gilead’s Tecartus is already approved for — the biotech highlighted “encouraging safety data” in the trial, with a low percentage of patients experiencing severe immune responses.

The FDA’s Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee will meet next Tuesday to discuss whether Cytokinetics’ potential heart drug can safely reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and heart failure in patients with symptomatic chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.

The drug, known as omecamtiv mecarbil and in development for more than 15 years, has seen mixed results, with a first Phase III readout from 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 key to breaking into the market.

Add AbbVie to the list of pharma companies currently facing age discrimination allegations.

Pennsylvania resident Thomas Hesch filed suit against AbbVie on Wednesday, accusing the company of passing him over for promotions in favor of younger candidates.

Despite 30 years of pharma experience, “Hesch has consistently seen younger, less qualified employees promoted over him,” the complaint states.

Another $65 million is music to the ears of the team at August Bioservices, a contract manufacturer in Nashville.

The company announced the Series B round last week, which will fund equipment in a new building expected to open in 2023, according to CEO Jenn Adams. It was led by Oak HC/FT, the same firm that led August’s Series A round in July 2020.

August Bioservices, a producer of materials such as prefilled syringes, IV bags and vials, was formed back in 2020 after the acquisition of PMI BioPharma Solutions, also based in Nashville. Adams said the goal was to build a business that could “address the scarcity of supply relative to sterile injectable manufacturing based in the US” and provide a broad range of manufacturing services.