| | | |   | It’s Meghana, hi. The annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, or AACR, is this weekend — and Angus Chen and Matt Herper will have a pop-up newsletter chronicling all that transpires.
Sign up here. | | | The big takeaway from the VRBPAC meeting Peter Marks, who leads the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said that the FDA believes that if the design of the Covid vaccine is changed to cater to newer strains, all vaccines will to be updated — the primary series and the boosters. A new composition “would have to become what we would use for primary series,” Marks said during Wednesday’s VRBPAC meeting. “It would be too confusing and potentially dangerous to have different regimens. It would be impossible, one of the panelists said, to keep track of a wide variety of vaccines that each have different compositions. What was particularly notable during the meeting, however, is that there isn’t a good framework in place for deciding when to offer another booster — or how best to update the vaccines. Read more. | Many Medicare recipients still can’t fill costly prescriptions A huge swath of Medicare Part D beneficiaries don’t ever fill their prescriptions for high-priced medications. Many have low incomes, and unless they have subsidies, they won’t take costly medications for cancer and other illnesses, even if they’d be very helpful, a new study shows. For example, 30% of cancer drug prescriptions went unfilled, and more than 50% of prescriptions for high cholesterol or immune disorder meds were not filled. This study shows that even if this population gets Medicare assistance, the out-of-pocket costs are still untenable for many. Nearly three out of four Medicare beneficiaries don’t qualify for subsidies because their incomes are too high. The researchers believe this subset of people is “extremely vulnerable” — and that high drug prices will “disproportionately affect” their access to care. Read more. | The power of perseverance in neuroscience For decades, conditions of the nervous system have been some of the most complex to understand and treat. Through scientific rigor and unwavering perseverance, one biotech company is asking the tough questions of themselves, the industry and society to push the boundaries of scientific understanding and discovery. Learn more about Genentech and Roche’s commitment to scientific advancement in neuroscience. | Vaccines effective against Omicron… therapies not so much The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is pretty effective at neutralizing the widespread Omicron BA.1 variant, a study in Science Translational Medicine shows. In fact, a booster vaccine increased titers more than 30-fold against Omicron, the study shows. However, therapeutics have been less successful against the newer strain. Scientists compared 18 clinical-stage antibody therapies obtained directly from manufacturers — but only three were potent compared to the older variant. Two therapeutic antibody cocktails that have achieved emergency authorization didn’t work at all against Omicron. The study suggests that mRNA vaccines are the most enduring form of protection against Covid-19 thus far — and that antibody therapies need to be updated quickly. | Flagship Pioneering has a new partner Flagship Pioneering has onboarded former Ancestry.com CEO Margo Georgiadis as its new “CEO-Partner.” Her plan is to lead a Flagship startup that’s in stealth mode, while also working at the venture firm to focus more on AI and machine learning as they apply to biotech. A major priority is “preemptive health” — what we assume is tech-y parlance for preventative care. Georgiadis helped grow Ancestry.com to more than 3.6 million subscribers, and doubled its genomics network to more than 20 million consumers — increasing subscription revenue to more than $1 billion, Flagship said in a release. She also oversaw the company’s sale to Blackstone for $5 billion. Before this new stint at Flagship, Georgiadis worked at venture firm General Catalyst, with a focus on health care. | More reads - 20 years in, Genentech persists and perseveres in Alzheimer’s with gantenerumab. (FierceBiotech)
- ‘We are not casting a wide enough net’: Rob Perez on how biopharma companies can help out their neighbors. (STAT)
| Thanks for reading! Until tomorrow,  | | | |
No comments