San Francisco—Nearly all top cancer drugmakers have struck deals in the sizzling antibody-drug conjugate field—but not Novartis. On Monday, the Swiss pharma’s CEO Vas Narasimhan explained how he’s resisted the temptation. The answer is radioligand therapies, Narasimhan said Monday during the 2024 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in response to a question from Fierce Pharma. “We have a long history within research of ADCs, but we have not been successful,” Narasimhan said. “To be clear, part of our focus strategy is looking at places where we think we can create long-term sustainable leadership. And we are investing in radioligand therapies.” ADCs and radioligand therapies are similar in that both technologies act as guided missiles. For ADCs, the guiding force is an antibody, and the cancer-killing payload is a chemotherapy. A radioligand therapy uses a ligand to target cancer cells and kills them with a therapeutic radioisotope. Radiotherapies may have a safety ...
In 2022, fueled by its powerhouse COVID products, Pfizer became the first company in the history of the biopharma industry to top $100 billion in annual revenue. What would the New York drugmaker do for an encore? In 2023, Pfizer went from generating the most sales in the industry to gaining the most approvals. With seven FDA nods in 2023, Pfizer had more than double that of any other company. It’s also more than twice as many as every drugmaker over each of the last three years. You need to go back to 2019, when Novartis scored six approvals, to find a company that approached what Pfizer accomplished in 2023. Pfizer’s splurge included four approvals in a dizzying five weeks in May and June. And all but one of the seven products has been pegged by analysts as a potential blockbuster. Two of the newly approved Pfizer treatments were acquired ...
Big Pharma companies have often talked about the major opportunities that await in China. But as price cuts play out and internal priorities shift, multinational companies are reworking their business models in the country. In the last few months of 2023, Pfizer, GSK, Sanofi and Biogen have each tapped local partners to help commercialize their products in China. With marketing responsibilities shifting to other firms, job cuts were expected at each of those large drugmakers. It’s not a new approach for foreign drugmakers to tap local partners in China, Justin Wang, head of L.E.K. Consulting’s China practice, pointed out in an email interview with Fierce Pharma. But these deals are on the rise lately, Wang explained, partly because “there is increasing pricing and competitive pressure in the market, especially for mature products, leaving reduced [return on investment] for in-house commercial resources.” Pfizer in November unveiled a deal with Keyuan Pharma, ...
Even with the Federal Trade Commission keeping a watchful eye on the biopharma industry and the economic landscape giving some players pause, mergers and acquisitions are back on the rise. And it is with cautious optimism that industry watchers see the trend continuing in 2024. Wielding plenty of firepower, drugmakers are more likely to make higher-value deals in the new year as they address growth challenges that loom later in the decade because of patent cliffs and the effects of the Inflation Reduction Act. “Executives will continue to deploy cash balances and seek out areas of innovation and clinical differentiation,” PricewaterhouseCoopers wrote in its Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences: U.S. Deals 2024 Outlook. “As regulators’ perspectives on key deal factors become better understood, there may be a return of larger deals, along with continued interest in the $5 billion to $15 billion deals to fill targeted strategic gaps.” Look no further ...
After years of back and forth with Daiichi Sankyo over cancer drug patent claims, Novartis has thrown in the towel with a $182 million settlement. The case stems back to 2017 and has its roots in Novartis’ Tafinlar, a melanoma therapy that the company acquired from GSK after a 2015 asset swap. Daiichi’s former subsidiary Plexxikon, which makes melanoma treatment Zelboraf, alleged that GSK scientists only gathered the knowledge necessary to develop the rival drug after consulting with Plexxikon for talks about a partnership that never came to fruition. Plexxikon’s patents date back to 2005, while GSK filed its first patent application on the drug in 2008, Plexxikon said. In 2021, a Northern California jury ruled in favor of Plexxikon, determining that Novartis stepped on two of the Daiichi subsidiary’s patents. Novartis was ordered to pay Daiichi’s subsidiary 9% royalty payments on future Tafinlar sales until certain Zelboraf patents expire ...
Several pharmaceutical industry advocacy and lobby organisations have bandied together to release a joint industry statement supporting the Declaration on Climate and Health released at the ongoing COP28 meeting. The joint statement is from associations in Europe, US, Canada, and Japan, like the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), as well as The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) which represents over 90 pharmaceutical companies worldwide. The declaration highlights the negative impacts of climate change on health, and details objectives to ensure better health outcomes, such as implementing adaptation interventions against climate-sensitive disease and health risks. The aim of the declaration is to strengthen the implementation of policies to protect populations most vulnerable to the health impact of climate change. The COP 28 meeting is an international gathering of national leaders, regulators, ...
By Tyler Patchen AbbVie is the latest big pharma to target the hot antibody-drug conjugate market by acquiring ImmuoGen and its Elahere ADC for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. The deal worth $10.1 billion was announced Thursday. Under the terms of the agreement, AbbVie will acquire all outstanding shares of ImmunoGen for $31.26 per share. The board of directors of AbbVie and Immunogen have approved the acquisition, which is expected to close sometime in the middle of 2024. The deal will give AbbVie access to Elahere (mirvetuximab soravtansine-gynx), which was granted FDA accelerated approval last year, and ImmunoGen’s follow-on pipeline of ADCs. ImmunoGen currently has several ADCs in development for treatments such as solid tumors, acute myeloid leukemia and blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm, among other conditions. “The acquisition of ImmunoGen demonstrates our commitment to deliver on our long-term growth strategy and enables AbbVie to further diversify our oncology pipeline across solid ...
Health Canada has approved Jazz Pharmaceuticals’s Epidiolex (cannabidiol oral solution) as an adjunct therapy in patients aged two years and older for the treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), Dravet syndrome, and tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). Epidiolex is a plant-based oral cannabidiol solution. It was developed by GW Pharmaceuticals and was added to Jazz’s portfolio following GW’s acquisition in 2021. The therapy was first approved in the US as an adjunct therapy in patients aged two years and older for the treatment of seizures associated with LGS and Dravet syndrome in June 2018. The approval in TSC came in July 2020. All three indications causes different types of serizure. LGS and Dravet syndrome are types of epileptic encephalopathy, that cause seizures. LGS is managed by two or more seizure medications whilst Dravet is treatment-resistant. TCS is a rare genetic condition that causes benign tumours to develop in different ...
Novartis has withdrawn its request to access Takeda’s documents as part of an investigation over potential trade secrets theft. Novartis originally filed the complaint in Massachusetts Superior Court in October. The Swiss pharma wanted to find out whether a former employee in Egypt took sensitive documents to his new job with Takeda. After being “stonewalled” by Takeda, Novartis resorted to legal action, attempting to subpoena the Japanese pharma’s business records and depose an employee. Takeda, on Nov. 10, filed a motion to dismiss the complaint for recovery. According to Novartis, a former employee named Khaled Shams Eldin transferred some 10,000 files to his personal email before departing the company in May. After leaving his post as operations lead for cell and gene therapy at Novartis’ Egyptian unit, Eldin joined Takeda in July in a similar position, the company said. Earlier this week, Novartis dropped the case, according to a court ...
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission isn’t letting up in its effort to crack down on pharma’s alleged misuse of a patent mechanism in the FDA’s regulatory process. And it’s Sanofi’s turn to land in the crosshairs. The FTC is weighing in on an antitrust lawsuit that Viatris’ Mylan brought against Sanofi in May centered on the French pharma’s popular insulin product Lantus. Although the agency didn’t pick sides in the case, it’s using the lawsuit as an opportunity to criticize the type of behavior accused of Sanofi. Specifically, the FTC argues “improper” listings in the FDA’s “Orange Book” can “cause significant harm to competition, and that harm can extend beyond the delay” in access to a competing drug, the FTC said in an amicus brief filed in the case. In the lawsuit, Mylan accused Sanofi of running a “multifaceted monopolization scheme” to protect Lantus. One of the alleged illegal practices ...
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