| | | |   | Good morning, everyone. Damian here with a preview of Biogen's next turn in the spotlight, a look at a pharmaceutical bellwether, and news on yet another Covid-19 vaccine. | | | And now a word from Biogen The last time Biogen hosted an earnings call, the company dropped two bombshells: It was essentially abandoning the launch of Aduhelm and replacing the CEO who presided over it. Later this morning, executives will take to the mic again and field questions about how Biogen’s turnaround plan is taking shape.
The conference call, starting at 8 a.m. ET, could bring more details on Biogen’s plan to cut about $1 billion a year from its budget by laying off staff and discontinuing pipeline projects. But the Q&A is likely to feature creative iterations of two questions: When will you hire a new CEO, and how confident are you in your next Alzheimer’s drug?
The latter relates to lecanemab, a successor to Aduhelm that is now in Phase 3 development with data expected in the fall. Biogen’s long-term future — and near-term stock price — depend on whether lecanemab becomes a profitable product, a financial albatross, or the last straw that forces the company into a hard reset. | As goes J&J Because Johnson & Johnson is the largest health care company in the world, its financial fortunes tend to be a bellwether for the industry at large. And parsing J&J’s positive results from the last quarter, released yesterday, analysts see hope that the pharmaceutical business can endure economic trouble.
J&J beat Wall Street’s estimates on both sales and profits, driven largely by its pharma division, which grew more than 12% over the same quarter last year. The read-through is that despite inflation and an economy tipping toward recession, people still go to their doctors and fill their prescriptions, an encouraging note for health care as a whole.
J&J’s performance supports an emerging narrative on Wall Street: While drug stocks are still down for 2022, the rest of the market is starting to look worse. And if the broader downturn continues, purportedly recession-proof sectors like health care might start to look more attractive. | STAT E-Book: How technology is changing the face of medicine The 2022 STAT Health Tech Summit brought together the most prominent leaders working at the intersection of health and technology. Our latest e-book lays out the most pressing issues in health care that tech could help solve, the exciting new ideas to make that happen, and the barriers to pulling them off. | PhRMA commits $10 million to clinical trial diversity Concerned about the lack of diversity in clinical trials, the trade group PhRMA said yesterday it would spend $10 million on an 18-month pilot project aiming to bring more clinical trials to communities that have long been left out of such research and testing.
Working alongside the Yale School of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, PhRMA plans to open 10 community-based sites for clinical trials in the Southeast and Southwest. The centers, which will be identified this fall, could range from individual doctor’s offices to community centers, and will be supported with infrastructure, training, and mentorship. The idea is to make each site sustainable and longstanding rather than one that pops open when a sponsor needs it, only to close afterwards.
The group plans to work with community organizations and trusted leaders to learn what might work best in terms of gaining trust and enrolling patients and will build on work other groups have done to increase community engagement. “We know that many persons in communities of color have not been included,” said Valerie Montgomery Rice, president and CEO of the Morehouse School of Medicine. “It is the first step in achieving health equity.” | Novavax is clear for launch With yesterday’s blessing from the CDC, Novavax can finally sell its Covid-19 vaccine in the U.S. But the rise of worrisome variants and some concerning data from overseas make it unclear whether there will be demand for a fourth vaccine option.
As STAT’s Helen Branswell reports, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted unanimously to recommend Novavax’s vaccine, with several members expressing hope that its more traditional manufacturing method might persuade some people who so far have been reluctant to get vaccinated. But according to Novavax, just 1 million people worldwide have received its vaccine despite its wide availability overseas, suggesting tepid demand.
In business terms, investors have largely written off Novavax’s short-term U.S. revenue, according to SVB analyst Georgi Yordanov. The company’s big opportunity will be in the future market for annual Covid-19 boosters, according to Yordanov, beginning with an Omicron-specific shot expected this fall. But it’s worth remembering that delays in execution led Novavax to miss the first spike in vaccine demand, and any projections for future success depend on the company finally staying on schedule.
Read more. | More reads - Pharma and patient advocates offer competing visions for achieving vaccine equity during pandemics. STAT
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- FDA approves first at-home therapy for skin repigmentation in vitiligo patients. STAT
- Inovio to cut 18% full-time jobs. Reuters
| Thanks for reading! Until tomorrow,  | | | |
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