Astrazeneca plc followed up its win a year ago in heart failure (HF) with yet another approval for its oral SGLT2 inhibitor, Farxiga (dapagliflozin), now cleared by the FDA to reduce the odds of kidney function decline, failure, cardiovascular death and hospitalization for HF in adults with chronic kidney disease (CKD) at risk of disease progression.
Emergent Biosolutions Inc. CEO Robert Kramer assured investors that he takes “full responsibility” for woes that beset the firm after the FDA’s Form 483 found serious manufacturing problems at the Baltimore, Md.-based Bayview plant. “You have my commitment that we're going to do everything we can to resolve these issues quickly, and as safely as possible,” he said during an April 29 conference call on first-quarter financial results.
Despite stock-denting phase II data with the oral version of Korsuva (difelikefalin) for moderate to severe pruritis in patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis (AD), Cara Therapeutics Inc. CEO Derek Chalmers said the outcome “prioritizes moving forward. We got what we needed from the phase II trial,” which identified the patients most sensitive to the drug, nailed down a dose spectrum, and equipped the company to power a registrational effort, he said.
Biovie Inc. Chairman Terren Peizer said Neurmedix Inc. “had been offered a better deal in the shorter term,” but the contract signed by the two firms – which installs entrepreneur Cuong Do the new CEO of Biovie, replacing Peizer – made more sense to both parties. Santa Monica, Calif.-based Biovie is taking over the assets of Neurmedix Inc., of San Diego, bringing aboard phase III-ready NE-3107, an oral small-molecule therapy designed to inhibit insulin resistance in Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Lexington, Mass.-based Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc.’s phase III win in the study called Invigorate with reproxalap for allergic conjunctivitis (AC) restarted speculation about odds of the drug, a small-molecule, immune-modulating covalent inhibitor of reactive aldehyde species (RASP), to treat dry eye disease (DED). “I do think there is potential read-through,” CEO Todd Brady said, especially with regard to the redness endpoint. A six-week safety study necessary before going to the FDA has not yet started, he told investors during a conference call. “That will require some discussions with the FDA, but I do not think, given the length of the trial, the safety study would impair our guidance of potentially filing NDAs by the end of this year.”
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices again took up the matter of risk vs. benefit with the COVID-19 vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson, and proved significantly less skeptical at its second meeting. The FDA and CDC swiftly determined that the recommended pause should be lifted and use of the vaccine should resume.
Advances lately in the genome-editing space include Beam Therapeutics Inc. publication in The CRISPR Journal details of its work with inlaid base editors, which the firm is applying in the BEAM-102 program for sickle cell disease. IBEs’ predictable, shifted editing window lets researchers go after disease-causing mutations that canonical base editors cannot reach, Beam said, and do the job with high efficiency and few off-target effects on the genome. The hottest news due in the near-term future from the sector will spill from Intellia Therapeutics Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., which is due to roll out first-in-human data with a systemic CRISPR-based genome editing therapy, NTLA-2001, in hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis.
Casualties continue to accrue in Huntington’s disease, but drug developers continue their work in the challenging, fatal genetic disorder that afflicts an estimated 2.71 per 100,000 people globally. In March, Basel, Switzerland-based Roche Holding AG pulled the plug on its phase III Generation HD1 study with the antisense therapy tominersen, licensed from Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., in a tie-up that dates back to the spring of 2013. Roche subsidiary Genentech Inc. said the move was based on an independent data monitoring committee's preplanned look at the drug's risk-benefit profile.
With phase III data due from Phathom Pharmaceuticals Inc. in the near term, investor eyes are turning to the ways that lead compound vonoprazan, a potassium-competitive acid blocker, might distinguish itself from proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) in gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
Adverse events and criteria for determining remission in an otherwise positive early study by Syndax Pharmaceuticals Inc. with oral menin inhibitor SNDX-5613 apparently gave Wall Street pause, and shares (NASDAQ:SNDX) closed at $13.42, down $5.96, or 31%.
