January 27, 2023 01:33 PM EST
Pharma
FDA+

Post-hoc analy­sis: EMA's CHMP re­jects Ipsen's po­ten­tial drug for rare ge­net­ic dis­ease

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use on Friday rejected Ipsen Pharma’s potential treatment for a rare genetic disease known as fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), which causes extra bone to form outside the skeleton.

The EMA said on its website that it could not draw any firm conclusions on the benefits of the French biopharma’s Sohonos (palovarotene), which selectively targets the retinoic-acid receptor gamma (RARγ), “as the applicant’s conclusion was based on a post-hoc analysis which was neither scientifically nor clinically justified and pre-specified study objectives were not met.”

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March 27, 2023 06:00 AM EDT

Forge Bi­o­log­ics’ cGMP Com­pli­ant and Com­mer­cial­ly Vi­able Be­spoke Affin­i­ty Chro­matog­ra­phy Plat­form

Victoria Maharaj

M.S.,Technical Sales & Scientific Advisory, Forge Biologics

Forge Biologics has developed a bespoke affinity chromatography platform approach that factors in unique vector combinations to streamline development timelines and assist our clients in efficiently entering the clinic. By leveraging our experience with natural and novel serotypes and transgene conformations, we are able to accelerate affinity chromatography development by nearly 3-fold. Many downstream purification models are serotype-dependent, demanding unique and time-consuming development strategies for each AAV gene therapy product1. With the increasing demand to propel AAV gene therapies to market, platform purification methods that support commercial-scale manufacturing of high-quality vectors with excellent safety and efficacy profiles are essential.

March 27, 2023 10:20 AM EDTUpdated 10:38 AM
R&D
Special

Who’s spend­ing and who’s cut­ting from Big Phar­ma’s $127B R&D bud­get? Here are the top 15 play­ers

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

A couple of the Big 15 biopharma companies in R&D hit the gas on research spending last year. Merck and Sanofi still have lots to prove in the pipeline, and they’re willing to gamble large sums to make a better future for themselves.

Doing nothing would be infinitely worse.

But collectively, the top players rang up a modest 2.4% increase in spending in 2022, which didn’t cover inflationary pressures. And that set the tone for an extraordinarily cautious year for the industry — even as it laid out about $127 billion to advance new drugs or up the ante on approved therapies.

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Jeff Bluestone (R), Sonoma Biotherapeutics CEO
March 28, 2023 07:30 AM EDT
Financing
Bioregnum

Jef­frey Blue­stone brings his start­up haul to $400M+, join­ing forces with Re­gen­eron on cell ther­a­pies

These days, when Jeffrey Bluestone gets together with his contemporaries in science, the conversation often turns to retirement plans.

But a little more than three years ago, Bluestone reached a momentous turning point in his career, exiting a prestigious post at UCSF, where he had spent decades in the scientific pursuit of new therapies. And it had nothing to do with retirement anytime in the near future.

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Sally Susman, Pfizer EVP and chief corporate affairs officer
March 28, 2023 12:30 PM EDT
Pharma
Marketing

Q&A: Pfiz­er cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions chief Sal­ly Sus­man dis­cuss­es book craft­ed in pan­dem­ic and per­son­al lessons

Beth Snyder Bulik

Senior Editor

From the political arena to the finance and beauty industries to pharmaceuticals, Pfizer’s Sally Susman has broken barriers, stereotypes and conventions. And now the chief communicator is “Breaking Through,” the title of her first book about effective and innovative communications launching today. The full official title is “Breaking Through: Communicating to Open Minds, Move Hearts, and Change the World.”

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March 28, 2023 07:30 AM EDTUpdated 10:17 AM
R&D
Pharma

Gun­ning for 2023 ap­proval, GSK de­tails PhI­II da­ta for Jem­per­li in front­line en­dome­tri­al can­cer

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

GSK has a new slate of data to offer on its PD-1 inhibitor, Jemperli — data that the pharma giant hopes will cement one of the four drug approvals it’s expecting this year.

While Jemperli (dostarlimab) is already approved for a subset of patients with second-line endometrial cancer, GSK set out in the Phase III RUBY trial to test it as an earlier line of treatment while also enrolling a broader group of patients. In an interim analysis, Jemperli was shown to extend progression-free survival for both the subset and the overall trial population when added to chemotherapy.

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March 28, 2023 06:47 AM EDTUpdated 07:02 AM
Pharma
Law

Es­pe­ri­on sues Dai­ichi Sankyo, de­mand­ing pay­ment of $300M mile­stone for car­dio drug

Drew Armstrong

Executive Editor

Kyle LaHucik

Associate Editor

Esperion is suing its business partner Daiichi Sankyo, saying the Japanese drugmaker is improperly refusing to pay a $300 million milestone that the biotech company will be owed after reporting positive data from a large trial of its cardiovascular drug Nexletol.

The 2019 deal between the companies had Daiichi Sankyo pay $150 million upfront plus another $150 million after the first sales of the drug. But another major payout was tied to an outcomes study reported this month, known as CLEAR. Esperion, in its suit against Daiichi, argues that the drug’s more than 20% reduction of heart attack risk is enough to trigger a $300 million payout from Daiichi once it’s added to the drug’s label.

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Robert Califf, FDA commissioner (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
March 28, 2023 02:21 PM EDTUpdated 03:32 PM
Pharma
FDA+
Manufacturing

House com­mit­tee to in­ves­ti­gate FDA's re­sponse to on­go­ing drug short­ages

Tyler Patchen

News Reporter

Republican leaders of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce sent a five-page letter yesterday announcing an investigation into the ongoing drug shortages that have rankled the US during the pandemic and the FDA’s response to it.

The letter, signed by Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), explains how shortages have become more common over the past decade, while pointing to a report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine finding that drug shortages have been “on the rise” over the past several decades and are lasting longer, with new drug shortages in the US seeing a 30% increase from 2021 to 2022.

March 27, 2023 03:04 PM EDT
Pharma
Manufacturing

Eli Lil­ly to in­crease in­vest­ment to $1B in­to new Irish man­u­fac­tur­ing fa­cil­i­ty — re­port

Tyler Patchen

News Reporter

The US pharma giant Eli Lilly will be increasing its financial commitment to a manufacturing site in Ireland.

According to a release from Ireland’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA) on Monday, Lilly will be investing another $500 million in its manufacturing facility in Limerick, Ireland — bringing the total investment into the facility to approximately $1 billion.

In January of last year, Lilly announced it was placing a $446 million investment into the site to expand active pharmaceutical ingredient and monoclonal antibody production.

Uğur Şahin, BioNTech CEO (Andreas Arnold/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)
March 27, 2023 01:07 PM EDT
Pharma

BioN­Tech read­ies for plunge in Covid sales, will boost mR­NA and on­col­o­gy pipelines

Beth Snyder Bulik

Senior Editor

BioNTech is estimating €5 billion (nearly $5.4 billion) in Covid-19 vaccine sales this year, a marked drop from €17.1 billion ($18.5 billion) in 2022 — and way off analysts’ expectations of around €8 billion ($8.6 billion).

In BioNTech’s year-end earnings call on Monday, it reported a total of €17.3 billion ($18.7 billion) in 2022 revenue, almost all from vaccine sales, which include those via its Pfizer deal and direct sales.

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Post-hoc analy­sis: EMA's CHMP re­jects Ipsen's po­ten­tial drug for rare ge­net­ic dis­ease

Forge Bi­o­log­ics’ cGMP Com­pli­ant and Com­mer­cial­ly Vi­able Be­spoke Affin­i­ty Chro­matog­ra­phy Plat­form

Who’s spend­ing and who’s cut­ting from Big Phar­ma’s $127B R&D bud­get? Here are the top 15 play­ers

Jef­frey Blue­stone brings his start­up haul to $400M+, join­ing forces with Re­gen­eron on cell ther­a­pies

Q&A: Pfiz­er cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions chief Sal­ly Sus­man dis­cuss­es book craft­ed in pan­dem­ic and per­son­al lessons

Gun­ning for 2023 ap­proval, GSK de­tails PhI­II da­ta for Jem­per­li in front­line en­dome­tri­al can­cer

Es­pe­ri­on sues Dai­ichi Sankyo, de­mand­ing pay­ment of $300M mile­stone for car­dio drug

House com­mit­tee to in­ves­ti­gate FDA's re­sponse to on­go­ing drug short­ages

Eli Lil­ly to in­crease in­vest­ment to $1B in­to new Irish man­u­fac­tur­ing fa­cil­i­ty — re­port

BioN­Tech read­ies for plunge in Covid sales, will boost mR­NA and on­col­o­gy pipelines