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While expected and seen as largely incremental, Jefferies analyst Peter Welford in a Tuesday note to investors said the detailed data for three early-stage assets support moving them into Phase IIb studies and creates a “foothold” for AstraZeneca in the weight loss space.
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This year has seen several biopharma companies drop Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease programs, but experts say plenty are still chasing these multi-billion-dollar markets.
While some of the initial excitement around immunotherapies has waned, companies—particularly smaller biotechs—are developing newer iterations that will take cancer care to the next level.
Lilly CEO Dave Ricks in Wednesday’s third-quarter earnings call acknowledged that the company is at the mercy of wholesaler stocking decisions.
TRACKERS
Follow along as BioSpace keeps you up-to-date on the latest pharma and biotech layoffs.
In 2023, the FDA greenlit 55 new drugs and 34 cell and gene therapies. Follow along as BioSpace keeps you up to date on all of the FDA’s decisions in 2024.
FROM OUR NEWS EDITOR
Every week, BioSpace’s Greg Slabodkin offers his take on the biggest stories happening in our industry.
CEO Albert Bourla, who is under attack from activist investor Starboard Value, got a much-needed victory on Tuesday as Pfizer reported that third-quarter revenue and adjusted profit beat the analysts’ consensus.
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The Big Pharma companies made a last-ditch effort asking a U.S. appeals court to reconsider their lawsuits against the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare drug price negotiations, which they contend infringe on their constitutional rights.
Jefferies analyst Roger Song in an investor note said that Viking Therapeutics’ readout for its investigational therapy VK2735 exceeded expectations, with “class-leading” weight loss. Patients on 100-miligram doses of the pill lost 8.2% of their body weight after 28 days.
FDA
The FDA is set to decide on four promising therapies in the next two weeks, including a CAR T for acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
In part 1 of the pivotal ESSENCE trial, Novo Nordisk’s weight loss drug Wegovy demonstrated “statistically significant and superior improvement” in liver fibrosis in patients with metabolic dysfunction–associated steatohepatitis.
Despite disappointing third-quarter results for Regeneron’s high-dose Eylea injection, analysts continued to be cautiously optimistic about the company’s promising cancer, immunology and genetic medicines pipeline.
While an FDA advisory committee saw signals of efficacy for Lexicon Pharmaceuticals’ sotagliflozin, the panel of external experts found that the company did not provide enough data to support its drug application.
Bristol Myers Squibb’s third-quarter results benefited from sales of its legacy brands Eliquis and Revlimid, as well as growth portfolio products such as Abecma, Breyanzi and Reblozyl.
In another delay for the psychedelic treatment space, Compass Pathways announced adjusted timelines for two Phase III trials of its psilocybin to address treatment-resistant depression.
Offsetting Merck’s growth in the third quarter were disappointing revenues from its HPV vaccine Gardasil and type 2 diabetes pill Januvia, with the company on Thursday narrowing its 2024 sales and adjusted profit outlooks.
AbbVie’s Humira missed Wall Street’s expectations in the third quarter but Skyrizi and Rinvoq’s continuing outperformance demonstrated the overall strength of its immunology franchise.