Biogen’s $7.3 billion Reata acquisition and layoffs dominated this week’s news, while BMS and Roche reported second-quarter earnings and BioSpace looked at 12 late-stage neuro companies.
Pictured: Two suits shaking hands/M&A_iStock, Tippapatt
This week’s news has been dominated by one company: Biogen. The company on Tuesday announced its plans to lay off 1,000 employees, or approximately 11% of its workforce, as part of a cost-cutting plan in what is the largest biotech downsizing so far this year.
Then, on Friday, Biogen continued to make headlines with its $7.3 billion acquisition of rare disease drugmaker Reata Pharmaceuticals. It’s the first big M&A for new Biogen CEO Chris Viehbacher as he seeks to turn things around for the troubled drugmaker, which has seen recent pipeline failures and aborted product launches.
However, Viehbacher may have inadvertently hurt Biogen’s partner Sage Therapeutics this week after he seemed to avoid the topic of Sage’s depression drug zuranolone and its impending FDA decision during his second-quarter earnings call Tuesday. Sage’s stock on Wednesday hit an eight-month low as investors seemed to view Viehbacher’s silence as an indication of an expected negative regulatory decision.
In other earnings calls this week, Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker said the Swiss pharma is preparing for the potential effects of the Inflation Reduction Act’s Drug Price Negotiation Program. While it will not be as severely affected as other pharma companies, Schinecker revealed that the IRA has forced Roche to take another look at its pipeline and business strategy, focusing on the most financially viable programs. Roche is dropping its investigational gene therapy for hemophilia A and four early-stage candidates.
One company that struggled in the second quarter was Bristol-Myers Squibb as its blood cancer treatment Revlimid disappointed sales expectations. BMS posted lower-than-expected earnings and lowered full-year guidance for 2023 in its financial results reported on Thursday.
Eli Lilly, meanwhile, reported promising results from two late-stage trials for its experimental weight loss drug tirzepatide, which cut the weight of participants by 26%. The company is pursuing an ongoing, fast-tracked review by the FDA.
The first half of 2023 saw the first approvals of therapies for a genetic subset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and a pair of rare neurological disorders and more rare disease treatments are up for FDA consideration in the coming months. BioSpace this week also examined the 12 companies to watch with late-stage candidates for Alzheimer’s, ALS, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s.
Greg Slabodkin is the News Editor at BioSpace. You can reach him at greg.slabodkin@biospace.com. Follow him on LinkedIn.
