| | | |   | Good morning, everyone. Damian here with a sobering M&A stat, the next phase of the amyloid debate, and how telemedicine could improve Alzheimer's disease research. | | | Pfizer is pharma’s only big spender One-third of the money spent on biotech buyouts in 2022 has come from the coffers of Pfizer, according to an analysis from Evaluate Vantage, suggesting that without the vaccine largesse of one global pharma firm, a slow year for M&A would look dismal.
Pfizer’s acquisitions of BioHaven, Global Blood Therapeutics, Reviral, and a stake in Valneva have propped up an otherwise sluggish market for deals in the drug industry. That runs counter to a prevailing theory on Wall Street that plunging valuations for biotech firms would lead larger companies to pounce.
Instead, small drug companies have repeatedly agreed to low-ball offers priced well below their 2021 valuations. With just $53 billion changing hands in the first three quarters, 2022 is on pace to be the weakest period for biopharma deals in five years, according to Evaluate. | Congress could complicate the Alzheimer’s debate In the wake of Medicare’s sweeping restrictions on an entire class of Alzheimer’s disease treatments, an influential lawmaker has introduced legislation that would require the program to make coverage decisions on individual medicines, not whole groups of them.
Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), widely seen as a frontrunner to chair the powerful Ways & Means Committee if Republicans win back the House, crafted the bill in light of last week’s positive clinical trial for Biogen and Eisai’s lecanemab. If that drug wins approval, it will be subject to the same restrictive policy that covers the controversial Aduhelm, which would dramatically limit its availability until Medicare amends its ruling.
The bill could be a preview of the escalating pressure that awaits Medicare in the months to come. Later this year, Roche will have pivotal data on an Alzheimer’s treatment called gantenerumab, and Eli Lilly expects Phase 3 results for the competing donanemab in 2023. Each falls under Medicare’s Aduhelm-inspired policy, and if either or both end up working, Medicare will face louder calls to scale back its restrictions.
A version of this item also appeared in D.C. Diagnosis, STAT’s free newsletter on health politics and policy, for which you can sign up here. | Maintaining the momentum in cell and gene therapy development In 2022, have been at least 11 CGTs pending approval in the US and six in the EU – how can drug developers maintain the momentum? Now is the time to lay the technical, regulatory, financial and logistical foundations that will embed CGT as a pivotal element of forward-looking health provision in years to come. Download this in-depth whitepaper to gain insights on the current market state and practicalities of clinical trials through long-term commercialization. | A Nobel for ‘click’ chemistry The Nobel Prize in chemistry went to three scientists whose novel approach to fitting molecules together opened new avenues for understanding and treating disease.
As STAT’s Brittany Trang reports, Carolyn Bertozzi of Stanford University, Morten Meldal of the University of Copenhagen, and K. Barry Sharpless of Scripps Research shared the award for their work on “click” chemistry, a precise way to conjoin molecules while limiting the risks of unintended chemical reactions.
Their work has applications in drug development and delivery, and DNA sequencing. Bertozzi’s lab has spun out many biotech startups, including Lycia Therapeutics, which focuses on degrading previously “undruggable” extracellular protein targets, and Redwood Bioscience, which was acquired by Catalent.
Read more. | A telehealth player wants to fix Alzheimer’s trials Ro, the telehealth company best known for prescribing hair loss and erectile dysfunction medication online, is working with the National Institute on Aging in hopes of addressing stubborn problems with recruiting patients for Alzheimer’s disease research.
As STAT’s Mario Aguilar reports, Ro is running a pilot project in which it will reach out to thousands of its customers aged 48 to 65 whose medical history indicates they may be at risk for Alzheimer’s. The goal is to find roughly 700 people to add to NIA’s Registry for Equal Access to Clinical Trials in Alzheimer’s Disease, or REACT-AD, which could ease recruitment for future studies.
“We want to pay particular attention to seeing whether we can encourage underrepresented minorities to participate in the registry,” said NIA senior investigator Madhav Thambisetty.
Read more. | More reads - From BQ.1.1 to XBB and beyond: How the splintering of Omicron variants could shape Covid’s next phase, STAT
- Multimillion-dollar prices for gene therapies are fair, Vertex exec says, Bloomberg
- A bold effort to cure HIV — using CRISPR, Wired
| Thanks for reading! Until tomorrow,  | | | |
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