Proposed mergers with Chinese companies will likely be subject to increased scrutiny from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) as evidenced by the temporary hold placed on the merger between F-star Therapeutics Ltd. and Sino Biopharmaceutical Ltd.’s Invox Pharma Ltd. that was announced in June 2022. F-star said in a November 2022 SEC filing that the two companies were extending the deal window to allow CFIUS more time to review the transaction. But in a Dec. 29 SEC filing, F-star announced that CFIUS put a temporary hold on the merger, citing “unresolved national security risks” under Section 721.

No US price increases for COVID-19 vaccine, new HELP chair tells Moderna

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the incoming chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, penned a blistering letter yesterday taking Moderna Inc. CEO Stephane Bancel to task over the company’s reported plans to quadruple the U.S. price of its COVID-19 vaccine once the government’s supply is depleted. Citing media reports, Sanders said Moderna intends to set the commercial price for the vaccine, which costs $2.85 per dose to produce, at up to $130 per dose. The current price to the government is $26.36 per dose. At the current price, Moderna has realized more than $19 billion in profits over the past two years, according to the letter. Sanders asked Moderna to “refrain from any price increases.”

China drops coverage of Paxlovid despite rising COVID-19 cases

China's National Healthcare Security Administration will not be adding Pfizer Inc.'s COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid to its list of medicines covered by basic medical insurance schemes in the country, due to its high prices. Inclusion on the National Reimbursement Drug List usually means higher volumes of orders in China for drugmakers, but it also comes with lowered price tags.

UK scientists translating COVID sequencing efforts to monitor respiratory infections

The success of the U.K. COVID-19 genomics consortium in large-scale sequencing, tracking variants of concern, establishing rates of transmissibility and informing public health decision-making during the pandemic, is to be extended to the monitoring of other respiratory viruses. In a five-year project, scientists at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge will be applying methods developed for the fast turnaround from positive sample to reading the genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2, and they will also be devising new techniques for sequencing the entire respiratory microbiome from a single sample.

Juvena looking to hESC-secreted proteins for treating age-related disease

Juvena Therapeutics Inc. co-founder and CEO Hanadie Yousef had the company’s name picked out several years before it was officially incorporated in 2017 to combine Yousef’s work in the mechanics of aging with an underutilized class of biologics and an advanced proteomics platform to tackle chronic and age-related diseases. The conception of Juvena tracks back to Yousef’s work at the University of California, Berkeley, alongside David Schaffer, Irina Conboy and Michael Conboy, which found that proteins secreted by human embryonic stem cells could exhibit pro-regenerative activity.

As Alpine’s Ruby-1 gleams, BAFF/APRIL approach gains ground in lupus

Targeting B-cell cytokines B-cell activating factor (BAFF) and a proliferation-Inducing ligand (APRIL) together has drawn more efforts by drug developers lately. Among those in the mix are Alpine Immune Sciences Inc., Remegen Co. Ltd., and Vera Therapeutics Inc. Recently highlighted were Alpine’s phase I data from the study called Ruby-1 and the planned phase II proof-of-concept effort with BAFF/APRIL-targeting ALP-303 in systemic lupus erythematosus.

Drugs to Watch 2023: This time it’s personalized

Now in its 10^th year, Clarivate’s newly released Drugs to Watch 2023 report primarily features treatments targeted to a particular biomarker, signaling the advance and increasing potential of personalized medicines. The 15 drugs on the list are anticipated to either clock sales of more than $1 billion by 2027 or be clinical game changers. Nine are predicted to hit $1 billion annual sales each in China by 2030. Included in the 2023 list are recently U.S. FDA approved Leqembi (lecanemab), from Eisai Inc., and donanemab, from Eli Lilly and Co. The Alzheimer’s disease therapeutics have anticipated sales of $1.02 billion in 2027 for Leqembi and $1.34 billion in 2027 for donanemab.

Also in the news

Acticor, Alterity, Alto, Alume, Alzecure, Arbor, Armata, Biofrontera, Biogen, Can-Fite, Dizal, Eisai, Genethon, Geron, Glycomine, Hifibio, Innovent, Insilico, Journey, Lundbeck, Merck, Minerva, MPC, Myrtelle, Otsuka, Phlox, Pieris, Qualigen, Raaven, Renexxion, Revive, Rocket, Solid, Sutro, Treadwell, Union, Urogen, Waverley, Vistagen, Vyne