| | | |   | Good morning, everyone. Damian here with a look at the alarming state of CAR-T cancer therapy, yet more Wall Street despondency, and some big shoes to fill at Pfizer. | | | Cancer patients are dying on the waitlist for CAR-T CAR-T cancer therapy has led to unprecedented results for some patients with dire diagnoses, but a shortage of available slots has forced doctors to decide which of their many eligible patients will get one of a few coveted treatments each month. For patients who don’t secure a spot, that can mean becoming too sick to ever benefit from CAR-T.
As STAT’s Angus Chen reports, patients with aggressive cancers are often left waiting months for a chance at treatment. About 20% die before a slot becomes available, according to physicians at major cancer centers.
The issue is manufacturing. CAR-T treatments are crafted by harvesting a patient’s own immune cells, genetically engineering them, and then using the results as a medicine. It’s a weeks-long process requiring specialized equipment, and drug companies don’t have the capacity to meet escalating demand. | ‘Will the selling ever end?’ Fifteen months into biotech’s bear market, it can be difficult to find new ways to describe investor malaise. Fortunately, the analysts at Cowen went straight to the source with their monthly industry thermometer, culled from conversations with their institutional clients. The results were illustratively dismal.
“Will the selling ever end?” begins one representative response. “Which funds are at risk of closing?” reads another, followed by “How are all of these small caps with big burns but small market caps going to finance operations?” which is an increasingly pressing question.
What’s lacking is a silver lining. Cowen notes that the steady stream of bad news could be “biotech’s new reality,” thanks to the glut of early-stage public companies and the historical rate of failure in the industry. “The most resilient of investors think the indiscriminate selling has produced unique opportunities for those willing to be patient,” the analysts wrote — but all the recent red tape suggests the issue might not be willingness but ability. | Going viral: Understanding vectors in gene therapy The field of gene therapy has moved from promising scientific research to medical reality. While often referred to as a single technology, there are distinct differences. Learn more. | Pfizer’s new vaccine chief had a hand in Paxlovid, too Annaliesa Anderson, a vaccine scientist at Pfizer whose breakneck work helped bring about Paxlovid, will soon lead the company’s entire vaccine research operation, the drugmaker said yesterday.
Anderson will replace Kathrin Jansen, who is retiring in August. Each of them played pivotal roles in what has been a defining period for Pfizer. Jansen, who helped develop Gardasil and Prevnar 13, presided over Pfizer’s work on what would become a vaccine for Covid-19. Anderson, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer for bacterial vaccines, was instrumental in transforming the dramatically effective Paxlovid from a corporate memory to a successful medicine. Combined, the two medicines are projected to generate more than $50 billion this year.
Now Anderson will lead Pfizer’s effort to translate its pandemic success into sustained leadership in the competitive vaccine field. Covid-19 has minted nimble new rivals in a space once dominated by multinational giants. | Even ex-unicorns have to cut costs in 2022 There is perhaps no better illustration of biotech’s recent fortunes than Sana Biotechnology. In 2018, the company raised a $700 million initial funding round with the goal of being “able to reprogram any cell in the body,” in the words of its CEO. In early 2021, it raised nearly $600 million in the largest-ever IPO for a preclinical biotech company, rising 40% on the first day of trading for a valuation of more than $6 billion.
But now it is 2022, and Sana is worth about one-seventh of that, which means even the most lavishly funded biotech company in recent memory has to pinch pennies. In a press release issued yesterday, Sana said it planned to save $100 million over the next three years by moving its manufacturing operation from suburban San Francisco to suburban Seattle.
Sana had nearly $700 million in cash as of March 31 and is in no danger of insolvency. But the company’s plummeting valuation and sudden austerity suggest the days of multibillion-dollar preclinical biotechs are well behind us. | More reads - Covid-19 pandemic prepared the White House to respond to monkeypox. STAT
- The 18 clinical trials that could make or break the future of the $100 billion psychedelics industry. Insider
- FDA withdraws approval for TG Therapeutics cancer treatment. Reuters
- Italian authorities fine drugmaker for ‘excessive’ pricing of a rare disease drug. STAT
| Thanks for reading! Until tomorrow,  | | | |
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