Pfiz­er is bankrolling a new on­colyt­ic virus start­up, tak­ing a 50% stake in the can­cer drug out­fit while hold­ing an op­tion to buy it if the founders ap­pear to be on the right R&D track.

The up­start is Ig­nite Im­munother­a­py, based in Alame­da, CA, which is be­ing launched by a group of ex­pe­ri­enced on­colyt­ics hands. Berke­ley ad­junct pro­fes­sor David Kirn, the CEO of 4D Mol­e­c­u­lar Ther­a­peu­tics, is the co-founder, along with Berke­ley’s Dave Schaf­fer.

Doug Hana­han, di­rec­tor of the Swiss In­sti­tute for Can­cer Re­search, is al­so count­ed as a co-founder, while Pfiz­er re­search ex­ec James Mer­son joins the board.

Pfiz­er is al­so pay­ing for the R&D work at the com­pa­ny over the next three years, as Ig­nite looks to jump in­to a wave of up and com­ing biotechs where are hur­ry­ing along next-gen on­colyt­ic vac­cines aim­ing at sur­pass­ing the pi­o­neer­ing Im­ly­g­ic (T-Vec), mar­ket­ed by Am­gen. A bunch of these star­tups are pair­ing up with check­point in­hibitors, a fact that wasn’t lost on Pfiz­er as it seeks the 4th OK of a check­point drug.

It’s a hot and hap­pen­ing field. Boehringer just inked a $230 mil­lion deal to part­ner with Vi­raTher­a­peu­tics. And the start­up will join ri­vals like PsiOxus. Philip Ast­ley-Sparke, who helmed BioVex be­fore Am­gen bought it up for T-Vec, co-found­ed Replimune, an­oth­er next-gen on­colyt­ic virus play­er. Mitchell Fin­er, the for­mer CSO at blue­bird bio, took the helm at the up­start On­corus, which just raised a $57 mil­lion ven­ture round and is us­ing a her­pes sim­plex virus for their work on glioblas­toma. And Duke Uni­ver­si­ty’s Dr. Matthias Gromeier has ge­net­i­cal­ly en­gi­neered his virus to keep it fo­cused on can­cer, and away from healthy tis­sues.

Novo Nordisk’s priority review voucher on oral semaglutide has paid off. The FDA approval for the GLP-1 drug hit late Friday morning, around six months after the NDA filing.

Rybelsus will be the first GLP-1 pill to enter the type 2 diabetes market — a compelling offering that analysts have pegged as a blockbuster drug with sales estimates ranging from $2 billion to $5 billion.

Ozempic, the once-weekly injectable formulation of semaglutide, brought in around $552 million (DKK 3.75 billion) in the first half of 2019.

There are two updates on the lawsuit against Purdue Pharma over its role in fueling the opioid epidemic, as the Sackler family threatens to walk away from their pledge to pay out $3 billion if a bankruptcy judge does not stop outstanding state lawsuits against them. At the same time, the company has asked permission to pay millions in bonuses to select employees.

Purdue filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy this week as part of its signed resolution to over 2,000 lawsuits. The deal would see the Sackler family that owns Purdue give $3 billion from their personal wealth and the company turned into a trust committed to curbing and reversing overdoses.

The sign is still there, a quaint reminder of whitewashed concrete not 5 miles from Genentech’s sprawling, chrome-and-glass campus: South Francisco The Industrial City. 

The city keeps the old sign, first erected in 1923, as a tourist site and a kind of civic memento to the days it packed meat, milled lumber and burned enough steel to earn the moniker “Smokestack of the Peninsula.” But the real indication of where you are and how much has changed both in San Francisco and in the global economy since a couple researchers and investors rented out an empty warehouse 40 years ago comes in a far smaller blue sign, resembling a Rotary Club post, off the highway: South San Francisco, The Birthplace of Biotech.

While Novartis painstakingly works to mop up the stench of the data manipulation scandal associated with its expensive gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) Zolgensma— rival Biogen is attempting to expand the use of its SMA therapy, Spinraza. 

The US drugmaker $BIIB secured US approval for Spinraza for use in the often fatal genetic disease in 2016. The approval covered a broad range of patients with infantile-onset (most likely to develop Type 1) SMA. 

After months of buzz from both sides of the aisle, Speaker Nancy Pelosi will today introduce her plan to allow the federal government to negotiate prices for 250 prescription drugs, setting up a showdown with a pharmaceutical industry working overtime to prevent it.

The need to limit drug prices is a rare point of agreement between President Trump and Democrats, although the president has yet to comment on the proposal and will likely face pressure to back a more conservative option or no bill at all. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley is reportedly lobbying his fellow party members on a more modest proposal he negotiated with Democratic Senator Ron Wyden in July.