South by Southwest festival returns live with cool music, film debuts — and a handful of pharmas

March 11, 2022 11:46 AM EST

South by Southwest festival returns live with cool music, film debuts — and a handful of pharmas

Beth Snyder Bulik

Senior Editor

Once upon a time, music setlists were the biggest news out of South by Southwest. Now? Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla will be speaking in a live session Monday about the race to create a Covid-19 vaccine.

Media and entertainment still take center stage at the now 35-year-old annual event in Austin, Texas, which opens Friday. However, healthcare and yes, even pharma, have landed side gig status over the past few years. Health and Medtech are now one of 15 conference tracks at SXSW.

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Vas Narasimhan (Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

June 28, 2022 12:50 PM EDTUpdated 04:26 PM

R&D

Novartis details plans to axe 8,000 staffers as Narasimhan begins second phase of a global reorg

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

We now know the number of jobs coming under the axe at Novartis, and it isn’t small.

The pharma giant is confirming a report from Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger that it is chopping 8,000 jobs out of its 108,000 global staffers. A large segment will hit right at company headquarters in Basel, as CEO Vas Narasimhan axes some 1,400 of a little more than 11,000 jobs in Switzerland.

The first phase of the work is almost done, the company says in a statement to Endpoints News. Now it’s on to phase two. In the statement, Novartis says:

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June 29, 2022 06:00 AM EDT

Pharma

Sanofi to cut insulin prices for uninsured from $99 to $35, matching the insulin cap coming through Congress

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

As the House-passed bill to cap the monthly price of insulin at $35 nationwide makes its way for a Senate vote soon, Sanofi announced Wednesday morning that beginning next month it will cut the monthly price of its insulins for uninsured Americans to $35, down from $99 previously.

The announcement from Sanofi, which allows the uninsured to buy one or multiple Sanofi insulins (Lantus, Insulin Glargine U-100, Toujeo, Admelog, and Apidra) at $35 for a 30-day supply effective July 1, follows House passage (232-193) of the monthly cap in March, with just 12 Republicans voting in favor of the measure.

Bob Nelsen (Lyell)

June 29, 2022 07:05 AM EDT

People

Financing

As bear market continues to beat down biotech, ARCH closes a $3B early-stage fund

Max Gelman

Senior Editor

One of the biggest names in biotech investing has a whole lot of new money to spend.

ARCH Venture Partners closed its 12th venture fund early Wednesday morning, the firm said, bringing in almost $3 billion to invest in early-stage biotechs. The move comes about a year and a half after ARCH announced its previous fund, for almost $2 billion back in January 2021.

In a statement, ARCH managing director and co-founder Bob Nelsen appeared to brush off concerns about the broader market troubles, alluding to the downturn that’s seen several biotechs downsize and the XBI fall back to almost pre-pandemic levels.

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Director of Quality Assurance

ImmunityBio

Dunkirk, NY, USA

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June 28, 2022 07:17 AM EDT

Pharma

In Focus

How prepared is biopharma for the cyber doomsday?

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

One of the largest cyberattacks in history happened on a Friday, Eric Perakslis distinctly remembers.

Perakslis, who was head of Takeda’s R&D Data Sciences Institute and visiting faculty at Harvard Medical School at the time, had spent that morning completing a review on cybersecurity for the British Medical Journal. Moments after he turned it in, he heard back from the editor: “Have you heard what’s going on right now?”

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Lina Gugucheva, NewAmsterdam Pharma CBO

June 28, 2022 08:00 AM EDT

Deals

Pharma group bets up to $1B-plus on the PhIII resurrection of a once dead-and-buried LDL drug

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Close to 5 years after then-Amgen R&D chief Sean Harper tamped the last spade of dirt on the last broadly focused CETP cholesterol drug — burying their $300 million upfront and the few remaining hopes for the class with it — the therapy has been fully resurrected. And today, the NewAmsterdam Pharma crew that did the Lazarus treatment on obicetrapib is taking another big step on the comeback trail with a €1 billion-plus regional licensing deal, complete with close to $150 million in upfront cash.

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June 28, 2022 12:53 PM EDT

Pharma

Marketing

#CannesLions2022: Consumer health execs call on agencies to involve patients in creative process

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

CANNES — When Tamara Rogers joined GSK back in 2018, “science was king and R&D were the gods.” Now the global chief marketing officer of consumer healthcare wants to make room for another supreme being: the consumer.

As health and wellness becomes more relevant to consumers amid the pandemic, four health-focused executives called on marketers to involve patients in their creative process in a panel discussion at the Cannes Lions advertising creativity festival.

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Photo: Clara Bui for Endpoints News

June 28, 2022 11:09 AM EDTUpdated 02:34 PM

Pharma

Marketing

#CannesLions2022: Pharma and health marketers lose spotlight at creativity ad fest, but does it matter?

Beth Snyder Bulik

Senior Editor

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

Pharma advertising has long been considered second-tier when compared to the rest of the advertising industry. And there are some legitimate reasons why. Nike sneakers and Coca-Cola soda ads will likely always be more entertaining or exciting than regulated campaigns for diabetes and heart disease.

Still, the Cannes Lions advertising festival of creativity was pharma and healthcare advertising’s annual chance to shine. For the past eight years, pharma agencies and clients stood side by side with consumer companies and agency hotshots on the biggest advertising award stage in the world at the Palais in Cannes, France.

ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Product Sales Manager

ImmunityBio

Remote

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Hank Safferstein, Generian CEO

June 29, 2022 07:00 AM EDT

Deals

R&D

Astellas subsidiary to partner with Pittsburgh upstart in search for 'undruggable' proteins

Tyler Patchen

News Reporter

As Astellas continues its drive to build out its gene therapy portfolio and capabilities, a subsidiary of the Japanese pharma company has entered into a collaboration with a little-known Pittsburgh biotech.

Astellas-owned Mitobridge and Generian Pharmaceuticals announced on Wednesday that they will work together in a new deal for “undruggable” protein targets. Generian will net an undisclosed upfront payment and could get up to $180 million in milestones, should anything from its platform prove successful, as well as single-digit royalties on global net sales.

(AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

June 28, 2022 02:27 PM EDTUpdated 04:38 PM

Pharma

Some pharma companies promise to cover abortion-related travel costs — while others won't go that far yet

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

As the US Department of Health and Human Services promises to support the millions of women who would now need to cross state lines to receive a legal abortion, a handful of pharma companies have said they will pick up employees’ travel expenses.

GSK, Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson, BeiGene, Alnylam and Gilead have all committed to covering abortion-related travel expenses just four days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and revoked women’s constitutional right to an abortion.

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