PharmaFocus Today – Page 368 – media

Quest to Reach Another Segment in Liquid Biopsy with New M&A

Omar Ford Quest Diagnostics is diving into a quickly growing segment of liquid biopsy with its latest M&A prospect. The Secaucus, NJ-based company announced a definitive agreement to acquire Haystack Oncology in an all-cash equity transaction. Quest will pay $300 million in cash at closing and Haystack has the potential to obtain up to an additional $150 million in performance milestones. If the deal were to close, then Quest would inherit Baltimore, MD – based Haystack’s minimal residual disease testing technology. MRD testing is a specific category of liquid biopsy that identifies circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in the bloodstream of patients following surgery and treatment for cancer. In a prospective, multi-institution study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in June 2022, an earlier version of the Haystack technology demonstrated the ability to better identify patients with residual disease for adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery for stage II colon cancer, thereby reducing ...
- Source: drugdu
- 137
- May 1, 2023
Biomarker Signature Test Predicts Which Tumors Will Respond to Immunotherapy

By LabMedica International staff writers Bladder cancer is often fatal, and survival rates have not improved in the past 30 years. Although immunotherapy has revolutionized bladder cancer treatment, it has significant limitations, as most patients do not respond to the therapy. Checkpoint immunotherapy drugs, which enable the body’s immune system to recognize tumors, are effective for only about 20% of bladder cancers. However, it is unclear which patients will benefit and why these drugs are not more effective for all patients. In a breakthrough that could enhance bladder cancer patients’ survival, researchers have now developed a biomarker signature test to predict which tumors will be responsive to immunotherapy. In the new study, scientists at Northwestern Medicine (Chicago, IL, USA), along with multiple international collaborators, identified three types of tumors that could respond to immunotherapy and two that could not. By employing a combination of gene expression profiling, mutations, and spatial ...
- Source: drugdu
- 4,452
- May 1, 2023
Medicare will cover Leqembi for all patients if FDA approves drug, CMS chief says

Medicare will cover the new Alzheimer’s treatment Leqembi for all patients eligible under the medication’s label if the Food and Drug Administration fully approves the drug in July, a federal official told members of Congress on Wednesday. The official, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure testified before Congress Wednesday for the first time since her confirmation as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Brooks-LaSure faced pointed criticism from Democrat and Republican members of the House Subcommittee on Health over Medicare’s controversial coverage policy for new Alzheimer’s treatments. The Food and Drug Administration approved Leqembi, which is a collaboration by Biogen and Eisai antibody treatment, on an expedited basis in January. Twice-monthly intravenous infusions of the drug, generically known as lecanemab, have shown promise in slowing the progression of early Alzheimer’s disease. But Medicare, which primarily provides health coverage to senior citizens, currently will only cover the ...
- Source: drugdu
- 119
- May 1, 2023
Roche’s Genentech opens up the world with new ad for Vabysmo

Adults facing wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME) fear their world getting smaller due to loss of eyesight. Roche’s Genentech addresses that issue head-on in its first DTC ad for Vabysmo. The new “Open up your world with Vabysmo” campaign was developed with input from patients, caregivers, advocacy groups and the retinal community impacted by wet AMD and DME. “One of the critical insights was that many of these patients felt when they were losing their vision it made their world feel really small—they didn’t get to go out as much, they weren’t necessarily doing their daily activities of living because they felt like they were losing their sight and therefore inhibiting that ability,” Jennifer Kim, Genentech’s vice president and head of ophthalmology, said. “So that’s how we developed that concept around open up your world. The idea of the campaign is ...
- Source: drugdu
- 138
- May 1, 2023
Merck results beat expectations despite a big drop in sales of Covid antiviral treatment

Merck on Thursday reported first-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings that topped Wall Street’s expectations, despite a steep drop in sales of its Covid antiviral treatment molnupiravir. Sales of molnupiravir plunged to $392 million during the period, down 88% from the $3.2 billion reported for the first quarter of 2022. Merck said the decrease is primarily the result of lower sales in the U.S., U.K., Japan and Australia. The company reported total revenue of $14.5 billion for the quarter, down 9% from a year earlier. But excluding the Covid drug, Merck said its revenue grew 11%. Here’s what Merck reported compared with Wall Street’s expectations, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv: Earnings per share: $1.40 adjusted, vs. $1.32 expected Revenue: $14.49 billion, vs. $13.78 billion expected Merck’s stock closed more than 1% higher Thursday. The shares are up more than 3% for ...
- Source: drugdu
- 126
- May 1, 2023
ChatGPT may have better bedside manner than some doctors, but it lacks some expertise

ChatGPT can be a useful tool for patients who are seeking medical information and guidance, but the artificial intelligence tool can’t fully replace the value of a human physician – it says so itself. “While I am a language model that has been trained on a vast amount of information, I am not a licensed medical professional and I am not capable of providing medical diagnoses, treatments, or advice,” the chatbot wrote in response to a question from CNN. Still, new research published this week suggests that physicians may have some things to learn from the chatbot when it comes to patient communication. A panel of licensed health care professionals assessed responses to about 200 different medical questions posed to a public online forum, including patient inquiries about medical diagnoses, need for medical attention and more. Responses from ChatGPT were “preferred over physician responses and rated ...
- Source: drugdu
- 143
- April 30, 2023
CDC set to stop tracking community levels for Covid-19

As the nation’s public health emergency expires on May 11, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will stop reporting its color-coded Covid-19 Community Levels as a way to track the spread of the infection. Instead, the CDC will keep tabs on Covid-19 largely by tracking hospitalizations in some areas, according to a source familiar with the agency’s plans. This is much the same way the agency tracks other respiratory infections, such as the flu. Hospitalizations are a lagging indicator: it generally takes a person a week to 10 days to be hospitalized with a Covid-19 infection. So the switch may mean that the nation is losing its capacity for the earliest warning of an uptick in spread. However, wastewater testing in communities and for air travelers will continue and is expected to close some of those early warning gaps. “We’re not ...
- Source: drugdu
- 135
- April 30, 2023
Moderna says it expects up to $15 billion in sales of Covid, RSV, flu vaccines in 2027

Moderna on Tuesday said it expects to see between $8 billion and $15 billion in sales from its Covid, RSV, flu and other respiratory vaccines in 2027. The biotech company said it sees a corresponding operating profit in the range of $4 billion to $9 billion. Those respiratory product estimates are supported by additional research investments of $6 billion to $8 billion “over the next few years,” Moderna added. The announcement came ahead of Moderna’s Vaccine Day on Tuesday. At the annual event, the company presented updates on its vaccine portfolio to investors and analysts eager to see how the company will navigate its post-pandemic boom. Moderna said earlier this year it expects $5 billion in mRNA Covid vaccine sales in 2023, a steep drop from the $18 billion the shot raked in last year. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company’s Covid vaccine remains its only commercially ...
- Source: drugdu
- 141
- April 30, 2023
Hansa Biopharma enters into collaboration with Genethon

Swedish biotech company Hansa Biopharma has entered a research and development collaboration with Genethon. The partnership will assess the efficacy and safety of imlifidase, Hansa Biopharma’s antibody cleaving enzyme, in a clinical trial. Imlifidase will be developed as a pre-treatment for patients with Crigler-Najjar syndrome and pre-existing neutralising antibodies (NAbs) to adeno-associated virus serotype 8 (AAV8), before administering GNT-0003, Genethon’s gene therapy product candidate. The company stated that patients with circulating NAbs will be excluded from the clinical trial of potentially curative gene therapies as well as from access to approved gene therapies. Hansa Biopharma president and CEO Søren Tulstrup said: “Genethon is a pioneer at the cutting-edge of research and development of gene therapies for rare diseases and we are thrilled to be collaborating with them. “This research collaboration further validates Hansa’s commitment in gene therapy and underscores the important role that our antibody-cleaving ...
- Source: drugdu
- 127
- April 30, 2023
Stablix, Vertex partner to develop targeted protein stabilisation therapies

Biopharmaceutical company Stablix and Vertex Pharmaceuticals have joined forces to discover and develop targeted protein stabilisation (TPS) therapies. Under the terms of the deal, Stablix will use its platform to discover new heterobifunctional small molecule drug candidates (RESTORACs) against specified targets which are involved in several diseases. Vertex will get an exclusive licence to certain molecules, which will be identified under the collaboration. Additionally, the company will handle the development and commercialisation along with research costs associated with the collaboration. As per the terms of the agreement, Stablix will get an upfront payment including a convertible note investment. The company is also eligible to receive research, development, regulatory and commercial milestones, along with the tiered royalties on future net sales of any products that are resulted from the partnership. Stablix CEO Tony Kingsley said: “We’re thrilled to partner with the outstanding scientists and ...
- Source: drugdu
- 127
- April 30, 2023

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