Emma Walmsley, GlaxoSmithKline CEO (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
April 28, 2021 11:27 AM EDTUpdated 11:43 AM
Pharma

The pres­sure builds for Em­ma Walm­s­ley as Glax­o­SmithK­line miss­es Q1 pro­jec­tion, drops more can­cer drugs

Nicole DeFeudis

Associate Editor

GlaxoSmithKline CEO Emma Walmsley is staying focused on the company’s split as earnings slide and Elliott Management lurks on the sidelines, threatening to launch one of its notorious activist attacks aimed to shake things up. And in a Q1 marked by a couple of major setbacks on the oncology side, R&D chief Hal Barron is doing some fine tuning of the pipeline that includes dropping two early stage candidates for cancer and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

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May 10, 2021 06:00 AM EDT

How Pa­tients with Epilep­sy Ben­e­fit from Re­al-World Da­ta

Parexel

Amanda Shields, Principal Data Scientist, Scientific Data Steward

Keith Wenzel, Senior Business Operations Director

Andy Wilson, Scientific Lead

Real-world data (RWD) has the potential to transform the drug development industry’s efforts to predict and treat seizures for patients with epilepsy. Anticipating or controlling an impending seizure can significantly increase quality of life for patients with epilepsy. However, because RWD is secondary data originally collected for other purposes, the challenge is selecting, harmonizing, and analyzing the data from multiple sources in a way that helps support patients.

May 12, 2021 11:55 AM EDT
Pharma
FDA+

FDA un­veils six ICH guide­lines ahead of meet­ing with Health Cana­da

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

A sign that the FDA’s non-Covid-related processes are beginning to normalize: The release of six guidelines from the International Council of Harmonisation.

Years in development, the ICH documents offer an international perspective on drug development, with these latest guidelines covering everything from recommendations to support the classification of drug substances, featured in the M9 guidance, to standards for nonclinical safety studies for pediatric medicines in the S11 guideline.

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Jason Kelly, Ginkgo Bioworks CEO (Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
May 11, 2021 07:01 AM EDTUpdated 11:11 AM
Financing
R&D

UP­DAT­ED: Gink­go Bioworks re­sizes the de­f­i­n­i­tion of go­ing big in biotech, rais­ing $2.5B in a record SPAC deal that weighs in with a whop­ping $15B-plus val­u­a­tion

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Jason Mast

Editor

Ginkgo Bioworks execs always thought big. But today should redefine just how big an upstart biotech player can dream.

In the largest SPAC deal to clear the hurdles to Nasdaq, the biotech that envisioned everything from remaking synthetic meat to a whole new approach to developing drugs has joined forces with one of the biggest disruptors in biotech to slam the Richter scale on dealmaking.

Soon after becoming the darling of the VC crew and clearing the bar on a $4 billion valuation, Ginkgo — a synthetic biotech player out to reprogram cells with industrial efficiency — has now struck a deal to go public in the latest leviathan SPAC that sets its pre-money valuation at $15 billion. In one swift vault, Ginkgo will combine with Harry Sloan’s Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp. and leap into the public markets.

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May 12, 2021 11:18 AM EDT
Pharma

Sanofi, Glax­o­SmithK­line, Boehringer ac­cused of play­ing games, de­stroy­ing emails re­lat­ed to law­suit over con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed Zan­tac

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

A recent court filing raises new questions about how major pharma companies like Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, and Boehringer Ingelheim have dealt with a lawsuit related to recalls of certain over-the-counter heartburn drugs due to the presence of a potentially cancer-causing substance found in them.

More than 70,000 people who took Sanofi’s Zantac and other heartburn drugs containing ranitidine, which have been recalled over the past two years, have sued the manufacturers, including generic drugmakers, and other retailers and distributors as part of a consolidated suit before US District Court Judge Robin Rosenberg in Florida.

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May 12, 2021 11:16 AM EDT
Pharma

Alvotech takes Ab­b­Vie to court over al­leged patent 'mine­field' sur­round­ing megablock­buster Hu­mi­ra

Nicole DeFeudis

Associate Editor

AbbVie has so far been successful in shooing away competition to its megablockbuster Humira, deploying a number of patents and settlements to keep biosimilars off the US market until 2023. But one Icelandic drugmaker doesn’t want to wait — and on Tuesday, it filed a lawsuit challenging what it called a patent “minefield.”

Alvotech has accused AbbVie of trying to “overwhelm” and “intimidate” it with “an outrageous number of patents of dubious validity,” according to court documents. The company is currently seeking approval for its Humira copycat AVT02, which AbbVie says would infringe upon 62 patents.

May 12, 2021 10:59 AM EDTUpdated 11:12 AM
FDA+

UP­DAT­ED: Feds charge an­oth­er CRO staffer with fak­ing da­ta in a Glax­o­SmithK­line pe­di­atric asth­ma study

Max Gelman

Associate Editor

A Florida woman has been indicted as part of a clinical trial fraud scheme over a GlaxoSmithKline pediatric asthma study, the Justice Department announced Tuesday, the latest development in a case where three individuals have already pleaded guilty.

Jessica Palacio was charged with participating in a plot to falsify medical records, giving off the appearance that trial participants were making their scheduled visits to a Miami CRO and taking an experimental asthma medication as required. Palacio was also charged with lying to FDA investigators about her conduct.

May 12, 2021 10:50 AM EDT
News Briefing

Sanofi, Cel­lec­tis team up to pair Lem­tra­da with al­lo­gene­ic CAR-Ts; Bris­tol My­ers joins Evotec's dri­ve to ad­vance UK sci­ence

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Kyle Blankenship

Managing Editor

Sanofi is partnering up with Cellectis on their allogeneic CAR-Ts.

Cellectis struck a deal to use the French pharma’s drug alemtuzumab (Lemtrada, an MS agent) as part of its lymphodepletion regimen — used to sideline host immune cells and improve CAR-T cell expansion and persistence.

The Sanofi drug is already used in some clinical trials, and now the pharma giant is on the hook for clinical studies as they engage in negotiations over a commercial pact. — John Carroll

Chris Garabedian (Xontogeny)
May 12, 2021 07:29 AM EDT
Financing

Per­cep­tive Ad­vi­sors, Xon­toge­ny bring the band back and then some with a $515M sec­ond fund sniff­ing out lead com­pounds

Josh Sullivan

Associate Editor

When Perceptive Advisors and startup accelerator Xontogeny initially teamed up on an early-stage VC round in 2019, the partners hoped to prove their investments could be a force multiplier for early-stage companies. Now, with that proof of concept behind them, the pair have closed a second VC round worth more than double the money.

Dubbed PXV Fund II and headed by Xontogeny CEO and former Sarepta head Chris Garabedian, the $515 million fund will target 10 to 12 early-stage preclinical companies with Series A rounds in the $20 million to $40 million range with opportunities for Series B follow-ups. The oversubscribed fund is bringing the band back with initial investors from PXVI as well as new investors that include “top-tier” asset managers, endowments, foundations, family offices, and individual investors.

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May 12, 2021 06:50 AM EDTUpdated 09:42 AM
FDA+
Manufacturing

A clos­er look at the FDA’s more than 700 pan­dem­ic-re­lat­ed record re­quests to re­place on­site in­spec­tions

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

As the pandemic constrained the FDA’s ability to travel for onsite manufacturing inspections, the agency increasingly turned to requesting records to fill the gap, even for hundreds of US-based facilities.

FDA explains in its guidance on manufacturing inspections during the pandemic that the agency can request records (not to be confused with the FDA’s remote interactive evaluations) directly from facilities “in advance of or in lieu of” certain onsite inspections. Companies are legally required to fulfill those requests because a denial may be considered limiting an inspection, which could lead to the FDA deeming a drug made at that site to be adulterated.

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The pres­sure builds for Em­ma Walm­s­ley as Glax­o­SmithK­line miss­es Q1 pro­jec­tion, drops more can­cer drugs

How Pa­tients with Epilep­sy Ben­e­fit from Re­al-World Da­ta

FDA un­veils six ICH guide­lines ahead of meet­ing with Health Cana­da

UP­DAT­ED: Gink­go Bioworks re­sizes the de­f­i­n­i­tion of go­ing big in biotech, rais­ing $2.5B in a record SPAC deal that weighs in with a whop­ping $15B-plus val­u­a­tion

Sanofi, Glax­o­SmithK­line, Boehringer ac­cused of play­ing games, de­stroy­ing emails re­lat­ed to law­suit over con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed Zan­tac

Alvotech takes Ab­b­Vie to court over al­leged patent 'mine­field' sur­round­ing megablock­buster Hu­mi­ra

UP­DAT­ED: Feds charge an­oth­er CRO staffer with fak­ing da­ta in a Glax­o­SmithK­line pe­di­atric asth­ma study

Sanofi, Cel­lec­tis team up to pair Lem­tra­da with al­lo­gene­ic CAR-Ts; Bris­tol My­ers joins Evotec's dri­ve to ad­vance UK sci­ence

Per­cep­tive Ad­vi­sors, Xon­toge­ny bring the band back and then some with a $515M sec­ond fund sniff­ing out lead com­pounds

A clos­er look at the FDA’s more than 700 pan­dem­ic-re­lat­ed record re­quests to re­place on­site in­spec­tions