| | | |   | Hello, all. Damian here with a behind-the-scenes look at a seemingly unlikely success in Alzheimer's disease, words from the CEOs of Pfizer and Eli Lilly, and the latest liquid biopsy startup. | | | With lecanemab, Eisai was ‘right all along’ To most of the world, the Phase 3 success of the Alzheimer’s disease treatment lecanemab was an unexpected twist after decades of failure. But not to Eisai, the Japanese pharmaceutical company responsible for its development, which ran millions of simulations and employed some baroque mathematics on the way to an expected triumph.
Eisai’s coup was set in motion back in 2014, when it took a decidedly different path from its partner Biogen, then developing the drug that would become Aduhelm. While Biogen went straight from a promising Phase 1 study into a pair of Phase 3 trials meant to win FDA approval, Eisai made the almost unheard-of decision to run a Phase 2.
Thanks to that complex, confusing, and at-the-time controversial study, Eisai moved into Phase 3 with confidence lecanemab could prove itself where so many medicines had failed. And even through Aduhelm’s ultimately disastrous cycle of death and rebirth, Eisai never waivered. When Lynn Kramer, the company’s top neuroscientist, called his boss to report that lecanemab had worked, his message was simple: “We were right all along.”
Read more. | Pfizer CEO: Biotech is cheap for a reason You can’t blame Pfizer for not doing its part to move the biotech M&A needle. In May, the company bought migraine drugmaker Biohaven Pharma for $11 billion, followed in August by a $5 billion deal for Global Blood Therapeutics and its treatments for sickle cell disease.
And Pfizer is still in the buying mood, but at the right price. Speaking at the 2022 STAT Summit yesterday, CEO Albert Bourla was asked if biotech valuations are more appealing now given how much stocks have been punished.
“In general they are cheaper — but those that you want to buy, they are not,” Bourla quipped.
Over the last three years, Pfizer has allocated a majority of its capital to research, both internal and external through acquisitions, Bourla added. “We will continue to do that because in our hands, we believe products become more valuable as we add our capabilities,” he said. | We’re working to make health care more affordable and equitable. In every ZIP code. A ZIP code is more than a number—it’s a main street, a tight-knit community, a family home. And until every baby goes home with a healthy parent. Until patients and caregivers speak the same language. Until routine care becomes routine, for everyone. Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies will work to make health care more affordable and equitable for everyone, for the health of America. Learn more. | Thrive founders launch new liquid biopsy company Liquid biopsies are designed to detect the unique signs of cancer before the disease has begun spreading and wreaking havoc in the body. Now a new biotech startup is developing liquid biopsies aimed at helping people who’ve already survived cancer know when there are indicators of cancer recurrence.
As STAT's Allison DeAngelis reports, Haystack Oncology launched yesterday with $56 million in Series A financing, as STAT’s Allison DeAngelis reports. The trio behind the company earlier founded Thrive Earlier Detection, which was acquired by Exact Sciences in 2020 for $2.15 billion.
The test’s potential, as well as the new technology it uses to find scarce traces of cancer DNA, drew in investors like the VC arm of Exact, as well as Catalio Capital Management and Alexandria Venture Investments.
Read more. | Lilly’s CEO on the perils of fake tweets In his first public comments since a fake tweet claimed Eli Lilly would give insulin away for free, CEO David Ricks said the company needs to do a better job of widening access to the life-saving diabetes treatment — and change perceptions of its existing efforts to do so.
“It probably highlights that we have more work to do to bring down the cost of insulin for more people,” Ricks said at the 2022 STAT Summit. The tweet, sent from a verified account impersonating Lilly’s corporate handle, cut into the company’s stock price and led to renewed criticism of the cost of diabetes medicine.
“It misled people, and we wanted to get that corrected quickly,” Ricks said. “It probably didn’t happen quickly enough to our liking. And it demonstrates some of the challenges on that platform.”
Read more. | More reads - The scientist behind Pfizer’s Covid vaccine says a flu pandemic is only a matter of time, STAT
- Novartis weighs ophthalmology, respiratory unit sales, Bloomberg
- The conundrum of biopharma investing: low rewards and high risks — but a big social benefit, STAT
- Scorpion Capital goes after Twist Bioscience as latest synbio target, comparing biotech to Theranos, Endpoints
| Thanks for reading! Until tomorrow,  | | | |
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