The Endpoints 100: Biotech execs stampede into 2018 with a cheer for the FDA and bullish feelings on public markets, private investors and a ‘hot’ M&A future
Biotech executives are pumped about 2018.
In our ongoing survey of the Endpoints 100 — a list dominated by the chiefs of a range of small, medium and large biotechs — these execs voiced a near-unanimous cheer for Scott Gottlieb and the job he’s doing at the FDA, where most see real, fast progress in speeding and improving the drug review process, with even more to come in the year ahead.
There’s a sense that the debate over drug prices is here to stay, with a solid majority looking for the issue to grow even more intense in 2018.
The vast majority of these companies plan to add to their staffs in the coming 12 months, as venture investing remains either good or excellent.
The public markets are viewed even somewhat better than earlier checks — though we took this survey as US markets experienced their worst week in two years.
And after a long cool spell on the M&A front, a big majority are looking for the M&A front to run hot, with valuations high to medium.
I’ll get into much more detail with what execs are saying below, but that’s the quick read on the buoyant sentiment that underscores the industry at the beginning of this second year of the Endpoints 100 survey. We’re also offering a look at how some of these issues on access to capital and public markets have trended since we launched the first survey back in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Altogether a record 91 biotech execs completed the survey by the deadline. Our thanks to all of them, because the survey depends on the data, and no industry can understand that better than biotech. — John Carroll
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Mathai Mammen hands in J&J's R&D keys to lead Greg Verdine’s FogPharma
In the early 1990s, Mathai Mammen was a teaching assistant in Greg Verdine’s Science B46 course at Harvard. In June, the former R&D head at Johnson & Johnson will succeed Verdine as CEO, president and chair of FogPharma, the same month the seven-year-old biotech kickstarts its first clinical trial.
After leading R&D at one of the largest drugmakers in the world, taking the company through more than half a dozen drug approvals in the past few years, not to mention a Covid-19 vaccine race, Mammen departed J&J last month and will take the helm of a Cambridge, MA biotech attempting to go after what Verdine calls the “true emperor of all oncogenes” — beta-catenin.
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Acquisition talks ongoing for Swedish rare disease biotech Egetis, shares up almost 40%
Shares of the Sweden-based rare disease biotech Egetis Therapeutics skyrocketed on Thursday afternoon as the company said it’s engaged in “ongoing discussion” with external parties regarding a “potential acquisition.”
Egetis confirmed rumors with a statement on Thursday while noting that there is no certainty that a takeover offer will be made.
Nonetheless, the possibility of an acquisition has shot up Egetis’ share price. By the afternoon on Thursday, its stock price was {$EGTX.ST} up over 38%. An Egetis spokesperson told Endpoints News in an email that it has no further comments.
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Moderna solidifies deal with Kenya to build mRNA manufacturing facility
The mRNA player Moderna is further cementing its presence on the African continent.
Moderna announced on Thursday that it has finalized an agreement with Kenya’s government to partner up and bring an mRNA manufacturing facility to the east African nation. The new facility aims to manufacture up to 500 million doses of vaccines annually. Moderna also said the new facility will have the ability to spike its production capabilities to respond to public health emergencies on the continent or globally.
GSK picks up Scynexis' FDA-approved antifungal drug for $90M upfront
GSK is dishing out $90 million cash to add an antifungal drug to its commercial portfolio, in a deal spotlighting the pharma giant’s growing focus on infectious diseases.
The upfront will lock in an exclusive license to Scynexis’ Brexafemme, which was approved in 2021 to treat a yeast infection known as vulvovaginal candidiasis, except in China and certain other countries where Scynexis already out-licensed the drug.
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Senate Finance Committee lobs more bipartisan pressure onto PBMs
Congress is honing in on how it wants to overhaul the rules of the road for pharmacy benefit managers, with a Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday serving as the latest example of the Hill’s readiness to make changes to how pharma middlemen operate.
While pledging to ensure patients and pharmacies “don’t get a raw deal,” Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) laid out the beginning of what looks like a major bipartisan effort — moves the PBM industry is likely to challenge vigorously.
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Lupus drug development market heating up, while FDA links with advocacy group to further accelerate research
The long-underserved systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) market is suddenly buzzing with treatment possibilities. Less than two years after AstraZeneca’s approval for Saphnelo — the first new SLE drug in a decade and joining just one other approved in GSK’s Benlysta – the pipeline of potential drugs numbers in the dozens.
Although most are very early stage — Spherix Global Insights estimates five in Phase II/III — the pharma R&D enthusiasm is catching on among doctors, patients and advocacy groups. On Wednesday, the Lupus Research Alliance and the FDA formed a novel private-public partnership called Lupus Accelerating Breakthroughs Consortium (Lupus ABC) to help advance lupus clinical trial success.
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MPP recruits three generic manufacturers to expand use of ViiV's injectable PrEP drug
ViiV Healthcare has teamed up with the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool and three generic manufacturers to expand access to medicine that can prevent HIV.
ViiV and the Medicines Patent Pool jointly announced Thursday that the MPP signed sub-licensing agreements with Aurobindo, Cipla and Viatris to manufacture generics of a long-acting form of cabotegravir for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). As a result of the agreement, the manufacturers will be able to develop, manufacture and supply generic versions of cabotegravir LA in 90 countries — subject to regulatory approvals.
Real patient ‘champions’ living with HIV star in Theratechnologies campaign
Over the past several years, people living with HIV have been more often telling Theratechnologies that they wanted more representation. Specifically, they wanted more African American people and more focus on living and thriving versus more typical medication regimen messaging.
So Theratechnologies came up with a new campaign called “I Am A Champion,” initially launched at the US Conference on HIV last year. The initial conference, print and digital media efforts highlight the triumphs of four long-term survivors from across the US.
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