Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. took to the stage this week at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference to talk up its pipeline, including the phase III program testing XEN-1101 in focal-onset seizures (FOS), due to complete enrollment in the second half of this year. It’s an indication where such other players as Biohaven Ltd. are busy, too. Several million adults are afflicted with FOS in the U.S., with close to a half-million pediatric patients.
Tough times can create great companies if they can navigate the turbulence, a panel of biopharma executives and academics told attendees at the Wuxi Global Forum 2024. Companies must learn how to endure bad periods and thrive during the good times, said Mathai Mammen, CEO of Fogpharma Inc., because those disparate financial and scientific cycles will never go away. Right now, the money part is tough, but the science is thriving
Among the firms updating progress at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPM) in San Francisco this week was Relay Therapeutics Inc., coming off a $30 million financing to boost its Dynamo platform and candidates.
Gene therapy has finally become the “new normal” with serial breakthroughs unlocking “tremendous value” for patients and society, while at the same time the U.S. health care system is shaping up to enable access to these costly treatments, according to Tim Hunt, CEO of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine.
Major contract research development and manufacturing organizations (CDMO) out of Asia are announcing plans to ramp up production and antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) capabilities worldwide.
Cell and gene therapy companies continue moving away from traditional treatment modalities into a future that’s often unclear. A panel of CEOs said at the Biotech Showcase in San Francisco that, instead of aiming for developing silver bullet therapies that knock out indications in a single blow, they tend to only be able to take incremental steps in development.
Blueprint Medicines Corp. shifted away from two early clinical therapies for EGFR-mutant non-small-cell lung cancer and dropped development and commercialization of lung and thyroid cancer drug Gavreto (pralsetinib) for areas outside of the U.S. and greater China, reducing its operating expenses, as it prepares for increasing Ayvakit sales and prioritizes development of other assets.
The zeal for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), a prominent focus for dealmaking in 2023, shows no signs of waning, as Johnson & Johnson greeted attendees of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPM) with news of its $2 billion buyout of Ambrx Biopharma Inc., picking up rights to an ADC platform along with a promising candidate targeting advanced prostate cancer. Under the terms, J&J agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of San Diego-based Ambrx for $28 apiece, marketing a 105% premium to the firm’s Jan. 5 closing price. Unsurprisingly, Ambrx’s stock (NASDAQ:AMAM) gained 101.5% to close Jan. 8 at $27.47.
MSD had a banner year at the ESMO Asia Congress earlier this month, presenting 14 abstracts on eight different types of cancers, including gastric, esophageal, colorectal, biliary tract, kidney, urothelial, breast and gynecological cancers. Ten of these studies were focused on Asian-related data. Roche AG, meanwhile, presented Asia-specific results from the phase III Alina study in patients with ALK-positive early stage non-small-cell lung cancer.
Multiple studies at the 65th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting 2023 have the potential to change the treatment paradigm for first-line treatment of multiple myeloma.
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