Savara watched their stock crater in June as they an­nounced a late-stage fail­ure on their lead com­pound. But now, based on the same Phase III tri­al, the FDA is giv­ing the biotech and its rare lung dis­ease drug break­through ther­a­py des­ig­na­tion.

The des­ig­na­tion comes for Mol­gradex, an in­halant meant to treat au­toim­mune pul­monary alve­o­lar pro­teinosis (aPAP). It was the lead com­pound in Savara’s 2016 buy­out of Seren­dex. The dis­ease is caused by au­toan­ti­bod­ies that neu­tral­ize a pro­tein called GM-CSF in the lungs, and the in­halant re­plen­ish­es the lungs with a re­com­bi­nant form of the pro­tein.

Savara said in June that the drug had failed to sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­prove oxy­gen lev­els in tri­al pa­tients’ alve­o­lar, the parts of the lung ob­struct­ed in PAP pa­tients. Savara tried to sal­vage the study, point­ing to sec­ondary and “ex­plorato­ry” end­points and blam­ing the pri­ma­ry fail­ure on an un­ex­pect­ed­ly high place­bo ef­fect. In­vestors didn’t buy it, tank­ing their stock price $SVRA 75%.

The FDA, though, ap­pears to think there’s a sto­ry there. It’s im­pos­si­ble to know the agency’s think­ing, but de­tailed slides Savara re­leased this fall em­pha­sized “a pat­tern of im­prove­ment” on sev­er­al met­rics in the 139-per­son tri­al and ar­gued that the “to­tal­i­ty of out­come da­ta” sup­port Mol­gradex over place­bo.

That da­ta in­clud­ed sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant im­prove­ments on the Saint Georges Res­pi­ra­to­ry Ques­tion­naire and CT scans. The biotech al­so ar­gued the pri­ma­ry end­point (tech­ni­cal­ly called A-aDO2), as well as a walk­ing test called 6MWT, he­mo­glo­bin lev­els and the time be­fore res­cue surgery “trend­ed” to­ward sig­nif­i­cance.

Bruce Trap­nell

Mol­gradex was “ef­fec­tive as shown by changes in lung pathol­o­gy, phys­i­ol­o­gy, health sta­tus, func­tion,” lead in­ves­ti­ga­tor Bruce Trap­nell wrote.

That still leaves a lot of ques­tions about the ben­e­fit for pa­tients, and though in­vestors came back with the break­through des­ig­na­tion, they didn’t re­turn Savara to its pre-June sta­tus. The stock near­ly tripled on Mon­day, from $1.73 per share to $4.91. But that’s still less than half of the $10.57 price on June 12.

The news may al­so bol­ster con­fi­dence in Savara’s oth­er pro­grams. Those in­clude a Phase II tri­al ap­ply­ing Mol­gradex to non­tu­ber­cu­lous my­cobac­te­ria, with re­sults ex­pect­ed ear­ly this year, and a now-en­rolling study ap­ply­ing the drug to non­tu­ber­cu­lous my­cobac­te­ria in cys­tic fi­bro­sis pa­tients. There’s al­so a van­comycin in­halant for MR­SA in­fec­tions in CF pa­tients, with Phase III re­sults ex­pect­ed in about a year.

Fewer Approvals, but Neurology Rivals Oncology and Sees Major Innovations

This report, the fourth in our Trinity Drug Index series, outlines key themes and emerging trends in the industry as we progress towards a new world of targeted and innovative products. It provides a comprehensive evaluation of the performance of novel drugs approved by the FDA in 2016, scoring each on its commercial performance, therapeutic value, and R&D investment (Table 1: Drug ranking – Ratings on a 1-5 scale).

For start-up biotechnology companies and resource stretched pharmaceutical organisations, launching a novel product can be challenging. Lean teams can make setting a launch strategy and achieving your commercial goals seem like a colossal undertaking, but can these barriers be transformed into opportunities that work to your brand’s advantage?
We spoke to Managing Consultant Frances Hendry to find out how Blue Latitude Health partnered with a fledgling subsidiary of a pharmaceutical organisation to launch an innovative product in a
complex market.
What does the launch environment look like for this product?
FH: We started working on the product at Phase II and now we’re going into Phase III trials. There is a significant unmet need in this disease area, and everyone is excited about the launch. However, the organisation is still evolving and the team is quite small – naturally this causes a little turbulence.

Every few years, a public health crisis (think Ebola, Zika) spurred by a rogue pathogen triggers a small-biotech rally, as drugmakers emerge from the woodwork with ambitious plans to treat the mounting outbreak. In most cases, that enthusiasm never quite delivers.

Things are no different, as the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China takes hold. There have been close to 300 confirmed human infections in China, and at least four deaths. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, which include MERS and SARS. On Tuesday, the CDC reported the virus was detected in a US traveler returning from Wuhan.

The venture tide might have subsided, the IPO window may be closing and certain listed biotechs may be having a tough time amid Neil Woodford’s well-publicized demised, but there’s still plenty to celebrate in the UK BioIndustry Association’s eyes.

Overall investment in UK biotech last year fell from the record-breaking £2.2 billion levels of 2018 to £1.3 billion — including £679 million in venture capital, a meager £64 million in IPOs plus £596 million when you add up all public financings, according to a new report from the BIA.

→ Blueprint Medicines filed an amendment to its application to get the gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) drug Ayvakit approved in fourth-line GIST, the company disclosed in the prospectus for a new $325 million public offering.  Blueprint got a big accelerated OK on the drug this month in a particular mutation, but because the FDA decided to split their review in two, they didn’t hear on fourth-line GIST. They were supposed to hear before February 14, but this amendment could push that date back by 3 months. Blueprint wrote that the amendment is designed to allow the company to comply with the FDA’s request for data from the Phase III Voyage trial before they give a judgment.

Late last year Novartis abandoned a cardio drug from Ionis’ spinoff Akcea just after the pharma giant snapped up inclisiran, going the RNAi way in guarding against heart disease in the $9.7 billion Medco buyout.

Now the pharma goliath — which is headed down the PCSK9 road with a drug it believes can be used in a mass population — can get a clearer picture of just what they gave up.

Akcea $AKCA and the mother company $IONS put out a statement early Wednesday saying that their Phase II study of AKCEA-APOCIII-LR delivered solid efficacy data, with the high dose clearly outperforming placebo in significantly reducing triglycerides as a means to cutting the risk of cardiovascular disease. In addition, investigators concluded that the drug slashed apoC-III, very low-density lipoprotein and remnant cholesterol while boosting “good” HDL levels.

Update: Nominations open through end of day, Monday, January 27

Two years ago, when we did our first Endpoints 20-under-40, we profiled a set of up-and-comers who promised to help reshape the industry as we know it. Now we’re back and once again looking for the top 20 biopharma professionals under the age of 40. We’ll be profiling folks who have accomplished a lot at a young age but seem on the verge of accomplishing so much more.