BOSTON – When Novartis AG's Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) became the first CAR T therapy on the market after winning FDA approval last year for B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the $475,000 price tag was mitigated somewhat by news that the Swiss pharma offered an outcome-based plan in which treatment would be reimbursed only when patients responded to therapy at the end of the first month. While the move ramped up discussions on how to shift the U.S. health care economics from volume-based pricing to a value-based or outcomes-based model – a change that will become increasingly necessary as more life-changing and potentially curative gene and cell therapies reach market – cost alone marks only one of the challenges in getting CAR T treatments to patients. Read More
SHANGHAI – Chengdu-based Hitgen Ltd. raised ¥250 million (US$39 million) in series B financing and inked a multi-year collaboration with Forma Therapeutics Inc, of Watertown, Mass. With a major DNA-encoded library (DEL) of small molecules, Hitgen has not found its relatively out-of-the-way location in southwestern China has held it back. Read More
BOSTON – Digital health platforms and advanced computational techniques are finding increasing use in big pharma, both improving and, at times, complicating the enterprise. Though varied efforts are taking shape across the world, Rachel Sha, vice president of digital business development at Sanofi SA shed light on her company's approach at BIO International Convention. Read More
BOSTON – How will machine learning, precision medicine and artificial intelligence (AI) affect the future of treatments? That question helped frame a panel discussion at the BIO International Convention. Much of the discussion focused on data being collected. "We talk about real-world data, and this is a buzzword," said Scott Solomon, the Edward D. Frohlich distinguished chair, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He added that most real-world data are not very good, and an effort must be made to improve the quality. Read More
LONDON – One month in, and the World Health Organization (WHO) is cautiously optimistic that the Ebola virus outbreak threatening the city of Mbandaka in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been contained by the ring vaccination program that was started on May 21, 2018. Read More
CHICAGO – Debates over the value of hyperthermic intra-peritoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) may subside as cancer patients and their doctors learn of the French study done in patients undergoing surgery for colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis. On the other hand, maybe they won't, because fans aplenty remain. "There are surgeons in the U.S. who are firm believers in HIPEC and others who are true skeptics," said Richard Schilsky, chief medical officer of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). "If patients travel around, they're going to hear the entire spectrum" of opinion. In such a contentious environment, "to even be able to do a randomized study is quite remarkable," he said during ASCO's annual meeting. He also noted that the surgery is "technically demanding" and "takes its toll on both the surgeon and the patient." Read More
Exact Sciences Corp., of Madison, Wisc., said that its raising up to $150 million, gross, through the sale of its 1 percent convertible senior notes, due 2025. The registered public offering is part of an earlier-announced issuance of senior notes. Read More
Orig3n Inc., of Boston, said it will focus on osteoarthritis indications for its cartilage regeneration program, the company's first induced pluripotent stem cells-derived cell therapy program. The company also makes consumer DNA kits. Read More
A team from the Canadian institution The Hospital for Sick Children and the German Cancer Research Center have discovered that antibodies binding to the malaria parasite can interact with each other as well as with their parasite target, and that this interaction improved their affinity for the pathogen. Read More
