Recent moves in the industry include new chief scientific officer at Wave Life Sciences, while Alliance Pharma gets a new CEO.

Plus transactions involving Sanofi/Fulcrum, Reneo/OnKure, Lilly/Mitsubishi Tanabe, Lantern/Oregon, Zydus/Eiger and more.

Investors warmed to the results of both GSK and AstraZeneca, where pressures that had emerged for competitors earlier in first-quarter earnings season were not as impactful.

Public Company Edition: Verona Pharma arranged up to $400m in new debt and up to $250m in revenue-related financing ahead of its COPD drug launch. Also, Organon, Sobi and Pacira priced $1bn, $275.1m and $250m note sales, respectively. Marinus, Emergent and Ginkgo cut jobs.

Ajax Therapeutics plans to take its type II JAK2 inhibitor into the clinic during the second half of 2024 with the aim of modifying disease in a way that first-generation type I inhibitors do not. 

Combination mechanisms, less frequent dosing and scalability are the goals of the collaboration.

Aiming to help create China’s first original treatment for under-researched rare diseases, the Hope for Rare Foundation is racing against a funding crunch to support translational research in China, its co-founder and secretary-general tells Scrip in an interview.

Zenas BioPharma plans to have data from four trials – two under way and two starting this summer – for obexelimab, which targets CD19 and FcγRIIb, within about a year and a half.

The industry’s top-selling drugs generate billions in revenues each year. Scrip analyzed data on nearly 200 blockbuster drugs to see which are forecast to make the most at peak and over a 14-year time horizon.

Indian firms accounted for over 50% of prescription volumes in five of the top 10 therapy areas in the US in 2022, as also 15% of the volume share of biosimilars, delivering savings and widening patient coverage a study by IQVIA said, while also highlighting supply chain risks that need attention.

Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty toppled after recording the highest ever annual sales for a pharmaceutical in 2022, while Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic climbed rapidly. But Merck & Co’s immuno-oncology blockbuster Keytruda was secure in the number one spot in 2023 as COVID-19 receded.

The highs of the COVID-19 era, and the lows that supplanted it, are beginning to fade.

Experts from across the biotech ecosystem spoke at a Citeline-sponsored panel at Swiss Biotech Day to discuss how pent-up demand was driving investment in areas outside of oncology, but how there was still room for innovation within the cancer market for those who ask the right questions.

Recent moves in the industry include new chief scientific officer at Wave Life Sciences, while Alliance Pharma gets a new CEO.

After starring in India’s first CAR-T treatment, the country’s Indian Institutes of Technology or IITs, are set to expand their drug development footprint. Scrip takes a look at what the Indian equivalents of Massachusetts Institute of Technology have going for them, including sizeable funding and alumni like Alphabet's CEO

Despite sales success in Japan and a fast track designation in the US, Shionogi’s oral COVID-19 therapeutic has missed statistical significance in a global Phase III trial in patients with mild to moderate symptoms.

Most of the companies with blockbuster drugs approved over the past decade oversaw their clinical development internally. Lilly holds the lead with eight blockbusters developed in-house.

As South Korea's doctors continue their long-running protest against a government plan to raise the medical student quota at universities, the walk-outs may be beginning to take a toll on the pharma industry, with many large firms reporting weak earnings in the last quarter.

Eisai expects growth to JPY56.5bn ($364.7m) in fiscal year 2024 from JPY4.3bn ($27.8m) in FY 2023. The company initiated a rolling BLA submission for subcutaneous Leqembi as maintenance therapy and expects approval in 2025.

Built around a TSLP-targeted antibody licensed from Merck, Uniquity begins with $300m from Blackstone to fund Phase II in asthma and COPD. But other anti-TSLP competition looms.

The company expects to have data from transfusion-dependent and non-transfusion dependent patients this year, with a potential expanded US approval in 2025 for Pyrukynd.

The German group has spent much of the year reviewing the pros and cons of its hybrid structure but there was never any question about divesting Bayer 04 Leverkusen, its extremely successful football team, CEO Bill Anderson told journalists.

As the proposed US BIOSECURE Act heads to a full House Oversight Committee vote, Scrip's China-based editors Brian Yang and Dexter Yan, together and guest Derrick Gingery from the Pink Sheet, discuss the implications and potential outcomes for the biopharma sector and factors behind the "biotech decoupling" trend. Dexter also shares insights from his recent coverage of antibody-drug conjugate R&D updates by Chinese companies.

Plus transactions involving Sanofi/Fulcrum, Reneo/OnKure, Lilly/Mitsubishi Tanabe, Lantern/Oregon, Zydus/Eiger and more.