Saemundur 'Sam' Oddsson, Sidekick Health co-founder and CMO

Pfiz­er teams up with dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics part­ner for next prod­uct launch, this time in atopic der­mati­tis

Big Pharma has been slowly but surely warming up to the potential of digital therapeutics, as evidenced by Sanofi inking a deal two months ago with DarioHealth. And on Thursday, another Big Pharma will take a look at the space in what it deems as simply the next step in an ongoing partnership.

Icelandic biotech Sidekick Health announced the launch of its digital therapeutics product specifically geared for atopic dermatitis Thursday alongside Pfizer, its Big Pharma partner who collaborated on the indication. CMO and co-founder Saemundur “Sam” Oddsson told Endpoints News that this is not the first time that Pfizer and Sidekick Health have worked together — in fact, it is the fourth digital therapeutics product that the pair have co-launched.

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Achiev­ing Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion: Un­lock­ing Cost Re­duc­tion, Clin­i­cal Ex­cel­lence & Pre­ci­sion Ther­a­peu­tics Man­u­fac­tur­ing

In the dynamic landscape of pharmaceutical and biotech industries, L7 Informatics is leading the charge in transforming traditional operations through digital innovation. With a firm focus on cost reduction, clinical improvements, reducing tech-transfer times, L7 Informatics is revolutionizing the way companies research, develop, and manufacture while also prioritizing the well-being of patients and providers thereby paving the way for a future where patients receive better treatments at lower costs.

End­points 20(+2) un­der 40, 2023; Bio­phar­ma's high­est-paid CEOs; N-of-1 CRISPR sto­ry goes on af­ter tragedy; and more

Welcome back to Endpoints Weekly, your review of the week’s top biopharma headlines. Want this in your inbox every Saturday morning? Current Endpoints readers can visit their reader profile to add Endpoints Weekly. New to Endpoints? Sign up here.

We will be off Monday in observance of Memorial Day — and when we get back, it will be a straight march to ASCO, BIO and more. Enjoy the (long) weekend!

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Rich Horgan (R) with his late brother, Terry

Rich Hor­gan spear­head­ed a gene ther­a­py for his broth­er. The tri­al end­ed in tragedy, but the work con­tin­ues for more pa­tients

Rich Horgan’s quest to create a custom gene therapy for his brother, Terry, ended in tragedy. But Horgan doesn’t believe it’s the end of the story.

Terry, a 27-year-old patient with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, died last October just eight days after receiving the therapy in a clinical trial in which he was the only participant. The case raised questions about the safety of certain gene therapies and what would happen to other drug programs under a nonprofit that Horgan created, called Cure Rare Disease.

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Bio­phar­ma's 20 high­est-paid CEOs of 2022, each bring­ing in $20M+ pay­days

Even in a down year for much of the biopharma market, 20 CEOs brought in pay packages valued at more than $20 million, an Endpoints News analysis found.

Endpoints collected data on more than 350 CEO compensation packages, covering a wide range of pharma, biotech, and life sciences companies. All told, the 20 largest earners made over $725 million in 2022 — an average package of $36.4 million. Three brought in paydays over $50 million, and one CEO broke the $100 million mark.

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Douglas Love, Annexon CEO

An­nex­on’s GA drug miss­es on pri­ma­ry goal but win on vi­su­al acu­ity will be fo­cus of planned late-stage tri­al

Annexon’s complement inhibitor didn’t prove better than sham at reducing lesion growth in a leading cause of blindness, but the biotech still plans to move forward on the back of secondary endpoints showing visual acuity preservation, which will “certainly” be the primary goal in a late-stage trial to be discussed shortly with the FDA, CEO Douglas Love told Endpoints News. 

The California biotech’s ANX007 was not statistically significant compared to pooled sham, the comparator, at 12 months in patients with geographic atrophy, per a Wednesday presentation. In every-month dosing, the GA lesion area changed about 6.2% from baseline (p=0.526) and 1.3% (p=0.896) in the every-other-month group. In a March note, Jefferies analyst Suji Jeong said a reduction of 20% to 30% would be “encouraging.”

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The 20(+2) un­der 40: Your guide to the next gen­er­a­tion of biotech lead­ers

This year’s list of 20 biotech leaders under the age of 40 includes a huge range of ambitions. Some of our honorees are planning to create the next big drug giant. Others are pushing the bounds of AI. One is working to revolutionize TB testing. All are compelling talents who are still young in age, but already far along in achievement.

And, as in years past, we went over. The 20 are actually 22 because of two double profiles that reflect how important teamwork is in the industry. As one of our honorees, Joe Illingworth of DJS Antibodies, told me in our interview, “It takes a village to raise a biotech.”

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FDA ap­proves Lex­i­con’s heart-fail­ure drug af­ter de­feat in di­a­betes

The FDA on Friday approved Lexicon’s heart failure drug sotagliflozin following a string of setbacks for the pharma company, including an FDA rejection in diabetes and the loss of a development deal with Sanofi.

The dual SGLT1 and SGLT2 inhibitor will be marketed as Inpefa and is a once-daily tablet. It’s been approved to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and heart failure-related hospitalization or urgent visits in adults with heart failure or type 2 diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, and other cardiovascular risk factors. The label spans the range of left ventricular ejection fraction, including preserved ejection fraction and reduced ejection fraction, as well as patients with or without diabetes, Lexicon said Friday.

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Astel­las, Seagen add fire­fight­er mes­sag­ing in blad­der can­cer aware­ness cam­paign

Firefighters are more likely than the general population to be diagnosed with bladder cancer, but it’s not widely known. So Astellas and Seagen are raising awareness of the issue as part of their ongoing “Let’s Talk Bladder Cancer” campaign.

Social media posts on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn during this month’s Bladder Cancer Awareness month link to a sponsored article in Firehouse magazine that talks about the increased risks of bladder cancer.

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People living with SMA and their loved ones will stroll the runway again in Genentech's 'Double Take' fashion show. (Genentech)

Genen­tech spon­sors fash­ion-for­ward mod­els walk­ing and rolling the run­way again in SMA en­core show

Genentech is reprising its high-style fashion show for spinal muscular atrophy awareness with an encore run next month.

The original “Double Take” show featured models who are living with SMA, and some family members, wearing custom-designed adaptive clothing, and debuted last fall around New York Fashion Week. The new encore show will debut at the annual Cure SMA conference in Orlando on June 29 with nine of the original models walking or rolling the runway.

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