| | | |   | Hey, it’s Meghana! To the veterans — thank you for your service. Today, we’ve got two new CEOs, a sad blow to a single company’s mission to upend the U.S. drug pricing system, and a rollicking Readout LOUD. | | | Sanofi’s old CEO becomes Biogen’s new one Former Sanofi CEO Christopher Viehbacher has been tapped as Biogen’s new chief executive — ushering in a new era for the biotech, which has been struggling since the Aduhelm debacle. Viehbacher, 62, will succeed Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos, who announced in May that he planned on resigning. In an exclusive interview, Viehbacher said he knows the Biogen job could be a challenging one, but that he's prepared for that. “I’m not the type of guy to go run something that is smoothly running,” he said. Viehbacher ran Sanofi for six years — but was ousted in 2014 after a public conflict with the staid French company’s board. However, he had a productive tenure there — breathing new life into the company with a string of acquisitions, including the $20 billion purchase of Genzyme. He also expanded Sanofi’s partnership with Regeneron, which proved to be a windfall: The two created Dupixent, a blockbuster drug for autoimmune disease that generates $5 billion each year.
Read more. | EQRx won’t be slashing prices for two cancer drugs The company EQRx was designed to change how U.S. drugs are priced — but turns out, curbing cancer drug costs is particularly tricky. EQRx’s intent had been to work more closely with insurers and health care systems to increase the use of lower-priced drugs. Instead, the company said it will “adopt market-based pricing” for the lung cancer drug aumolertinib and the breast cancer drug lerociclib. It also said it will no longer try to get FDA approval for sugemalimab, drug that’s similar to AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi, because there is “no commercially viable path” for the drug. EQRx had initially planned to invent its own medicines, but pivoted to license several new medicines that it thought could compete with existing treatments — at lower prices. Some of these “me-too” came from Chinese drugmakers, but now, that means regulators are suddenly requiring even more data. And ever since it went public last year through a SPAC, EQRx’s shares have fallen by half, creating pressure to turn a profit. Which means… at least some of the company’s would-be discount drugs will no longer be discounted. Read more. | The power of observation Microscopy can reveal how immune cells kill tumor cells and how cancer evades our normal defenses. Unraveling these complex relationships has revolutionized cancer care through the development of treatments like immunotherapies, which boost the immune system’s ability to fight cancer. Take a journey with us and see what Genentech researchers see through sophisticated microscopes as they carefully observe cellular activity to reveal how the immune system interacts with cancer. | What happened to that ‘red wave’? How can Biogen right the ship? And what can NASCAR teach us about public health? All that and more on this week’s Readout LOUD, STAT’s dazzling biotech podcast. STAT Washington correspondent Sarah Owermohle joins us to explain how this week’s midterm elections will affect health and medicine, and what the politicization of the pandemic means for the future of science in the U.S. We also discuss the incoming CEOs of Biogen and Seagen, plus a pair of biotech collapses. Listen here. | Seagen recruits a Flagship vet as CEO Cancer drugmaker Seagen is bringing on Flagship Pioneering’s David Epstein as its new CEO, replacing cofounder Clay Siegall, who resigned after being arrested on domestic assault charges. This could mean a return to stability for Seagen, but also suggests that Merck may not be acquiring the company after all. Epstein was an executive partner at Flagship, the venture firm that launched Moderna. Before that, he spent 25 years at Novartis, building its oncology unit and then running its global pharmaceutical division. Read more. | More reads - AstraZeneca discards Moderna-partnered solid tumor prospect, kidney disease asset in pipeline clear-out, FierceBiotech
- Sanofi, GSK score late win with EU Covid booster approval, Reuters
- Justice Sonia Sotomayor declines to block NYC public sector Covid-19 vaccine mandate, CNN
| Thanks for reading! Until next week,  | | | |
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