Q&A: CMO and development chief Dietmar Berger says Sanofi is ‘right there at the table’ on diversity efforts

Dietmar Berger, Sanofi CMO and global head of development

July 26, 2022 12:30 PM EDTUpdated 04:08 PM

Q&A: CMO and development chief Dietmar Berger says Sanofi is 'right there at the table' on diversity efforts

Beth Snyder Bulik

Senior Editor

Sanofi is debuting its newest diversity initiative today, a partnership with historically Black university Howard University to help launch the next generation of scientists — and Sanofi employees. The program with Howard’s pharmacy school includes the added extra step of promising jobs at Sanofi to successful candidates.

Helping to oversee the program is Dietmar Berger, Sanofi’s chief medical officer and global head of development. He joined Sanofi more than three years ago after a short stint at Atara Biotherapeutics, but before that had a long career in big biopharma drug development. Berger, a hematologist-oncologist, led Genentech’s hematology and oncology clinical development for six and a half years before Atara. Before that, he led Bayer’s oncology development in head cancers and worked at Amgen in clinical development for more than 10 years in a variety of oncology roles.

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The Factors Driving a Rapid Evolution of Gene & Cell Therapy and CAR-T Clinical Research in APAC

Kasey Kime

Director of Regulatory Affairs at Novotech

APAC is the fastest growing region globally for cell & gene therapy trials representing more than a third of all cell & gene studies globally, with China leading in the region.

APAC is the leading location globally for CAR-T trials with China attracting ~60% of all CAR-T trials globally between 2015-2022. The number of CAR-T trials initiated by Western companies has rapidly increased in recent years (current CAGR of about 60%), with multiple targets being explored including CD19, CD20, CD22, BCMA, CD30, CD123, CD33, CD38, and CD138.

September 24, 2022 06:00 AM EDT

Weekly

The Endpoints 11; bluebird's $3M gene therapy; Biogen tout new neuro data; Harsh reviews for cancer drugs; and more

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

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.

Reading about John Carroll’s pick of biotech’s most promising startups has become a treasured tradition. If you ever get curious about previous classes of the Endpoints 11, you can find all of them (plus a number of our other regular specials) here.

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September 23, 2022 12:30 PM EDT

Pharma

Manufacturing

EMA warns of shortages of two Boehringer heart drugs due to a spike in demand

Tyler Patchen

News Reporter

The EMA is putting EU member states on alert over the shortage of two drugs that counter heart attacks due to an uptick in demand.

On Friday, the EMA sent out a warning that two Boehringer Ingelheim drugs are experiencing a shortage: Actilyse and Metalyse. The drugs are used as emergency treatments for adults experiencing acute myocardial infarction, or a heart attack, by dissolving blood clots that have formed in the blood vessels.

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Head of Site Finance mRNA - Cell & Gene

Lonza

Geleen, Netherland

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September 22, 2022 07:01 AM EDTUpdated September 23, 04:21 AM

Special

The Endpoints 11: The top private biotechs in pursuit of new drugs. Pushing the envelope with powerful new technologies

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Right around the beginning of the year, we got a close-up look at what happens after a boom ripples through biotech. The crash of life sciences stocks in Q1 was heard around the world.

In the months since, we’ve seen the natural Darwinian down cycle take effect. Reverse mergers made a comeback, with more burned out shells to go public at a time IPOs and road shows are out of favor. And no doubt some of the more recent arrivals on the investing side of the business are finding greener pastures.

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September 23, 2022 11:07 AM EDTUpdated 01:04 PM

Pharma

Marketing

Klick Health gathers biotech and pharma luminaries to discuss industry innovations, investments and future

Beth Snyder Bulik

Senior Editor

At Klick Health’s first Ideas Exchange conference with biotech and pharma industry insiders since before the pandemic began, it was no surprise many conversations included Covid topics. Yet while vaccines and treatments were discussed, so too were the effects on drug development, federal responses, health inequities — and what to do now and next.

George Yancopoulos, chief scientist and cofounder of Regeneron, opened the conference responding to a question from Acorda CEO Ron Cohen about the spotlight on the industry during Covid and some of the “flak” biopharma has taken in the past.

September 22, 2022 11:48 AM EDT

Pharma

Marketing

Pfizer sacks pharma competition in early NFL TV advertising season

Beth Snyder Bulik

Senior Editor

If pharma advertising had a fantasy football league, Pfizer would be crushing the competition. A dive into the National Football League’s TV commercial buys across early season games by iSpot shows a hefty lead with its Covid-19 Comirnaty vaccine ads.

More than 175 million impressions with $9.5 million in media spending put Pfizer in the top spot with a 65% share of voice across NFL pharma spending, according to the real-time TV ad tracker. In a distant second place is Bristol Myers Squibb’s Opdivo with 44 million impressions, $5.2 million in spending and a 16% share, followed by BMS’ Zeposia with 31 million impressions, $3.3 million in media buys and an 11% share.

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Wendy Lund, WPP chief client officer for health and wellness

September 22, 2022 10:36 AM EDTUpdated 12:10 PM

People

Pharma

Marketing

WPP taps Organon chief communications officer Wendy Lund for new health and wellness client role

Beth Snyder Bulik

Senior Editor

Wendy Lund is going home – to WPP, that is. Lund is leaving the Merck women’s health spinoff Organon where she is chief communications officer for a newly created role as WPP chief client officer for health and wellness. Before Organon, Lund led GCI Group, a WPP healthcare communications agency, as CEO for 11 years.

Lund joins WPP’s group of global client leaders who act as a single point of contact or entry for clients with WPP brands and businesses inside the holding company. and in this case, for the WPP health and wellness business.

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Head of Quality Systems

Lonza

Lexington, MA, USA

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Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar

September 23, 2022 01:17 PM EDT

Pharma

Law

Should SCOTUS hear Amgen's Repatha case? Solicitor general says no

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

Back in April, Amgen said it was encouraged by the solicitor general’s anticipated review of its Supreme Court petition to rehear a Repatha patent case. They’re likely much less optimistic about the outcome now.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in a recent 27-page brief that Amgen’s arguments “lack merit and further review is not warranted.”

The case traces back to a suit filed in 2014 against Sanofi and Regeneron’s Praluent, which ended up beating Amgen’s PCSK9 blockbuster Repatha to market by a month just a year later.

Phil Sharp, Nobel Prize laureate (L), and John Carroll, Endpoints News co-CEO (via Michael Last)

September 23, 2022 12:44 PM EDTUpdated 4 hours ago

The Endpoints 11: Fireside chat with Nobel Prize laureate Phil Sharp

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

On Thursday evening in Boston I had the great good fortune to talk about the creation of the biotech industry with Nobel Prize-winning scientist Phil Sharp. I learned quite a bit about the early days of Genentech, Biogen and Alnylam, which all helped birth this unusual drug development ecosystem. And that’s why we can do things like the Endpoints 11. Here’s my talk with Phil Sharp, which you can either watch or read below.

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