Little more than a month after selling a narcolepsy drug from its portfolio, Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc has replaced it with another. The company entered an exclusive development and commercialization rights agreement Sumitomo Pharma Co. Ltd.’s candidate for treating narcolepsy along with idiopathic hypersomnia and other sleep disorders. Sumitomo retains the rights for Japan, China and certain other Asia-Pacific countries and regions while Jazz gets the rights to everywhere else.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc and Werewolf Therapeutics Inc. signed a licensing pact that could be worth more than $1.26 billion, assigning Jazz exclusive global development and commercialization rights to Werewolf's preclinical cancer prospect, WTX-613, a conditionally activated interferon (IFN)-alpha molecule known as an Indukine that emerged from Werewolf’s Predator protein engineering platform.
With generic competition on the horizon for its older sleep disorder drug Xyrem, Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc gained an added indication for its GABA B receptor agonist Xywav as the FDA approved it for idiopathic hypersomnia.
Just months after Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc's inventory of a therapy key to treating certain acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphoblastic lymphoma patients appears to have run out, FDA approval has arrived for an alternative: a recombinant version of the medicine the company developed, Rylaze (asparaginase Erwinia chrysanthemi (recombinant)).
The significant risks and high costs associated with neurological R&D has tended to keep companies and investors on the sidelines over the past few years. However, thanks to research progress and the development of new technologies, business development and investing in the space is heating up once again.
Questions about the price tag, the extent of diligence done on intellectual property, and the staying power of Epidiolex (cannabidiol) as well as the potential of other prospects in the acquiree’s pipeline bubbled up during the conference call related to Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc’s whopping takeover of GW Pharmaceuticals plc.
While everyone will be glad to see 2020 in their rearview mirror, the biopharmaceutical sector can count its blessings, as it emerges from a period where it has surprisingly received record public and private financings and enjoyed strong investor support. This is in sharp contrast to most of the global economy, which has been decimated by the ongoing pandemic.
The phase III study of Zepzelca (lurbinectedin) as combination therapy from Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc and Pharmamar SA was a stumble, but the companies said they found plenty of encouraging data prompting them to continue development.
The fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitor space may seem, in the words of one analyst, “historically a graveyard,” but that didn’t keep Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc from buying Springworks Therapeutics Inc.’s program with a plan to take aim first at post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and associated symptoms.
Dublin-based Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc’s phase III top-line win with Xywav (calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium oxybates) oral solution in adults with idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) provides the company with a needed foothold there as generics threaten its other sleep disorder drug, Xyrem (sodium oxybate).
