By Tristan Manalac Pictured: Hundred dollar bills/courtesy of Nomad_Soul/Adobe Stock On Wednesday, ElevateBio closed a $401 million Series D financing round, making it biotech’s largest private fundraising haul this year. The Massachusetts-based company will use the money to improve further the company’s gene editing, RNA, cell, vector engineering, protein and induced pluripotent stem cell technologies. ElevateBio will funnel these funds into BaseCamp, the company’s end-to-end genetic medicine cGMP manufacturing and process development business. Beyond advancing its platforms, ElevateBio will also use its Series D raise to broaden its geographic reach and increase its manufacturing capacity to satisfy the needs of its industry and academic partners. Wednesday’s funding round follows ElevateBio’s $525 million Series C in May 2021, one of biotech’s largest fundraises of that year. Since then, the company has further solidified its presence in the gene therapy space. In October 2021, ElevateBio bought biotech start-up Life Edit Therapeutics, whose ...
The drug is available in 27 markets, with worldwide sales totalling over $139m in 2022. Eli Lilly will sell its low blood sugar drug Baqsimi to Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth over $1bn, the two companies announced. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, Amphastar will pay Lilly $500m at closing and an additional $125m after one year, with Lilly also eligible to receive sales-based milestone payments of up to $450m. Baqsimi is the first and only nasally administered glucagon to treat severe hypoglycaemia – very low blood sugar – in diabetes patients aged four years and above. Classed as a diabetic emergency, severe hypoglycaemia is a complication that can occur in diabetes patients who take insulin and certain anti-diabetic tablets. The condition is characterised by altered mental or physical functioning, including confusion and disorientation, convulsions, loss of consciousness and coma. Lilly launched Baqsimi ...
Drugs that combat obesity are under consideration for the first time for the World Health Organization’s “essential medicines list,” used to guide government purchasing decisions in low- and middle-income countries, the U.N. agency told Reuters. A panel of advisers to the WHO will review new requests for drugs to be included next month, with an updated essential medicines list due in September. The request to consider obesity drugs was submitted by three doctors and a researcher in the United States. It covers the active ingredient liraglutide in Novo Nordisk’s obesity drug Saxenda, which will come off patent soon, allowing for cheaper generic versions. The panel could reject the request or wait for more evidence. A decision by the WHO to include Saxenda and eventual generics on the list for adults would mark a new approach to global obesity by the health agency. It could also pave the way for a newer, more ...
The pharmaceutical company that makes Wegovy slimming jabs is funding the expansion of weight-loss services across England as it seeks to boost sales of its obesity drugs, the Observer can reveal. Novo Nordisk is paying the salaries of staff on NHS obesity teams and financing the launch and redesign of services, including giving £206,000 to a health partnership to transform its treatment of obesity. The Danish firm also has financial links to the co-chair of an NHS England weight management advisory group, and paid her almost £50,000 in lecture, consulting and other fees in just two years. Novo Nordisk’s funding arrangements are under the spotlight after an Observer investigation in March found it had paid £21.7m to UK health organisations and professionals in three years before the approval of its Wegovy injections for NHS use. In some cases, recipients of the funding went on to praise Wegovy or support its approval for use on the NHS without ...
Sanofi has said it will cut the US list price of its most widely prescribed insulin by 78%, following similar moves by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly earlier this month. The changes will come into effect in January 2024 and will also include a $35 price cap on the same insulin, Lantus (insulin glargine injection), for those with commercial insurance. Around 8.4 million of the 37 million people in the US with diabetes use insulin, but the rising cost of the lifesaving medicine has been a pressing concern for many patients. Sanofi, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly produce over 90% of the US insulin supply and have come under recent fire over the rising costs of their products. In January, California attorney general Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against the three drugmakers and leading pharmacy benefit managers for allegedly using their market power to overcharge patients for insulin. Other states ...
Some compounding pharmacies are offering what they say are generic versions of the drugs, which have soared in popularity for weight loss. When Robin Langois, 58, was prescribed the weight-loss drug Wegovy last year, she couldn’t afford the high price tag after her insurance wouldn’t cover it. But she later discovered on TikTok that people could get their hands on what appeared to be the drug’s active ingredient, semaglutide, from compounding pharmacies for a fraction of the price. Langois, of Tucson, Arizona, said she was initially hesitant, because of safety concerns, but she eventually found a telehealth provider to write her a prescription. “I’m not 100% sure it’s what I’m getting,” Langois said. She noted, however, that she’s experienced feelings of fullness and weight loss, as well as nausea, a common side effect of the drug. “It’s working like it should,” she said. Either due to cost or ongoing shortages, ...
Diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases and is mainly classified into type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes and others. Worldwide, 90% of diabetic patients suffer from type 2 diabetes, which greatly promotes the development of the diabetes drug market.
Though the US stands first in the race in terms of sales and growth, it is highly believed that China would reach the peak in the pharma market by 2022. At present, since there has been a decrease in public health funding, there has been a slight fall in pharmerging countries like Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). But it is believed that the condition of these pharmerging countries will improve in the next five years [1].
First Human Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Trial to Test the Superiority of RK-01 over Metformin in Type 2 Diabetes Patients with Inadequate Glycemic Control.
Twice on Thursday, Genentech, scored two approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA) – a new medicine for hemophilia and an expansion for its cancer drug Gazyva.
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