| | | |   | Hi! This is Meghana. Today, we see how an enterprising nonprofit is seeking to lower drug prices, how a malaria treatment performed in a clinical trial, and how former Merck chief Kenneth Frazier plans to tackle health disparities. | | | Nonprofit developing generic alternative to Zytiga Nonprofit Civica Rx plans to sell a cheaper, generic version of a costly cancer drug in the U.S. Partnering with Hikma Pharmaceuticals, a generic drug maker, Civica will offer abiraterone, a prostate cancer treatment, to pharmacies for $160 per month.
It’s suggesting that pharmacies sell the generic drug to consumers for $171 — much, much less than what they pay for the branded version, Zytiga. Before discounts, Zytiga can cost nearly $3,000 for a month’s supply. Civica has to date provided about 60 injectable medicines to some 1,500 hospitals around the country. Its approach is mirrored by other drug startups. Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs Company, for example, is also working with generic manufacturers to create new supply lines for medicines, with a nominal markup. Read more. | A monoclonal antibody for malaria An experimental monoclonal antibody therapy prevented malaria in most of the participants in a small clinical trial, a NEJM study shows. NIH scientists introduced trial participants to malaria between two and six weeks after receiving the antibody treatment, called L9LS. Just two of 17 participants developed symptoms of the parasitic illness. The Phase 1 study indicated that there were no safety issues associated with L9LS. Just last year, the WHO recommended the very first malaria vaccine, after large studies showed that it reduced the risk of contracting the disease by 40%. The hope is that an antibody infusion could help improve those odds. Clinical trials of the antibody treatment are being planned now in children in Kenya and Mali, where prior exposure to malaria could hinder efficacy. Read more. | Over a decade later, what’s next for the future of immunotherapy? Since 2011, the FDA has approved over three dozen novel immunotherapy treatments for patients with various forms of cancer. While these therapies have improved outcomes for some patients, there are others whose tumors don’t respond well enough to these medicines. Learn how the next generation and personalization of immunotherapies will help deliver more options for people with cancer. | Merck’s Ken Frazier on tackling health disparities Technologies that address health disparities could be a lucrative business opportunity, former Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier writes for STAT. By helping people in underserved communities become proactive about their health, he says, the overall need for doctor and hospital visits could decrease. Social drivers such as housing, food, transportation, and education play the most substantial role in determining an individual’s health. And it’s mostly left to the government to address these issues, Frazier points out — which means that real innovation tends to be waylaid by bureaucracy. “But enormous problems are fertile ground for innovative, change-the-world founders to create new enterprises,” he writes. He now works at venture firm General Catalyst to launch startups that address social drivers of health and health disparities. Read more. | A quarterly update from Moderna Although Moderna’s sales grew 9% in the second quarter, a surplus of Covid vaccines has led to a decline in profit, the Wall Street Journal writes.
Though it boasted revenue of $4.75 billion for the quarter ended June 30, the company's profits fell 21% to $2.2 billion thanks to costs linked to expired vaccine doses and changed purchase commitments. The biggest blow, CEO Stéphane Bancel said in an earnings call, came from fewer orders from Covax, the WHO-backed initiative to vaccinate lower-income countries. Global Covid vaccine supply, apparently, is higher than demand. That said, Moderna plans to begin delivering new booster shots in September that target newer variants — which is expected to boost revenues. The company has also begun researching a potential new vaccine against monkeypox, FierceBiotech writes. The only vaccine available for the disease, made by Bavarian Nordic, is in short supply. That said, Moderna President Stephen Hoge said in the call that “there are other even larger public health threats right now” than monkeypox, and that in terms of having a viable candidate for the disease, “it’s premature to say more.” | More reads - Eli Lilly’s Covid-19 antibody treatment to be sold commercially, Wall Street Journal
- Organ decay halted, cell function restored in pigs after death, Reuters
- Exact Sciences hands over Oncotype prostate cancer test to MDxHealth for $30 million upfront, FierceBiotech
- Merck: Two Phase 3 Keytruda studies miss targets, MarketWatch
| Thanks for reading! Until tomorrow,  | | | |
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