| | | |   | Salutations, esteemed readers. This is Meghana. Today in the Readout: Novartis licenses a highly profitable cancer drug to generics makers so it can be sold in lower-income countries, a pharma insider details how he expects the Inflation Reduction Act to play out, and more. | | | Novartis voluntarily licensing cancer drug to generic makers Novartis will license Tasigna, one of its top cancer drugs, to generics makers so they can distribute it to 44 low- and middle-income countries. The deal is with the Medicines Patent Pool, a public health organization backed by the United Nations. It’s the first-ever voluntary licensing deal for a cancer medicine — other such agreements have been for infectious diseases like HIV and Covid-19. Tasigna is a top-selling drug for Novartis: Last year it generated more than $2 billion in sales. It is used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia, and is listed by the WHO as an essential medicine. “This is an incredibly important signal,” the leader of the Medicines Patent Pool told STAT's Ed Silverman. “Breaking into non-communicable diseases is a big step forward. It’s a big change. This shows that there’s no disease area where voluntary licensing doesn’t have a role to play. And we hope this puts licensing on the table for every company, no matter the treatment.” Read more. | What happens when approved drugs turn out not to work? Is it OK to make SARS-CoV-2 hybrids? And are British tabloids reliable sources of science news? We cover all that and more this week on “The Readout LOUD,” STAT’s biotech podcast. Lawyer and bioethicist Holly Fernandez Lynch joins us to explain a watershed test of the FDA’s authority to revoke drug approvals. And STAT’s Helen Branswell calls in to discuss the headline-grabbing research at Boston University involving a lab-developed version of the virus that causes Covid-19.
Listen here. | With mRNA’s exciting therapeutic potential, biopharma prepares to drive vital progress The convergence of mRNA and other advances like CRISPR, immuno-oncology, and intracellular antibodies has created a perfect storm that can change the course of medicine. Now, with the scientific community closer than ever to realizing the power of many exciting areas of research, companies are preparing to support extraordinary progress in therapeutic development and clinical care. Scott Ripley, general manager of nucleic acid therapeutics at Cytiva, tells us more. | What will the new drug pricing laws look like for industry? The Inflation Reduction Act passed this summer, and should eventually lead to sweeping changes in how drugs are priced. But “the impact will vary by product and company,” pharma insider Jim Meyers told STATs Ed Silverman in an in-depth conversation. There will be a lot of variables at play, such as whether it’s a small molecule or a biologic, which portion of Medicare it’s covered by, and so on. This could have implications for how drugs are developed: “If you make the decision to go forward with a small molecule for cancer, you will likely have to revisit the normal cadence of drug development,” he said. Meyers, who now works at Boston Consulting Group, also predicts higher launch prices for drugs — an effort by the industry to compensate for the pricing impact of negotiations with Medicare. Read more. | Prime Medicine goes public for $175 million In one of this year’s larger biotech IPOs, gene editing biotech Prime Medicine has raised $175 million and began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “PRME.” It’s the sector’s six-largest IPO by proceeds in 2022, and is the biggest for a company not yet in human trials. There have been just 19 biotech IPOs this year. Although biotech companies of late have been generally reticent to go public, attempting to stretch existing venture funding as far as possible, the appetite for gene editing IPOs is “immense,” one investor told BioPharma Dive. “It’s a technology that has the ability to really serve patients who have debilitating genetic diseases that don’t necessarily have a lot of alternatives, and so the market opportunity here is really exciting.” | More reads - Falling demand for Covid boosters puts price hikes on the table, Reuters
- AbbVie to buy UK biotech DJS for $255 million, BioPharma Dive
- Hook’ed on KRAS, Roche lines up licensing deal as it pursues Mirati and Amgen, Endpoints
| Thanks for reading! Until next week,  | | | |
No comments