| |   | | | Will Amgen buy Horizon Therapeutics? Amgen is in advanced talks to take over Horizon Therapeutics, the Wall Street Journal reports. The deal could be worth more than $20 billion, making it the largest health care merger of the year. Sanofi, meanwhile, is backing out of acquisition discussions with Horizon. Horizon’s drugs that treat rare autoimmune diseases have been performing very well — revenue from its biggest seller, the thyroid eye disease drug Tepazza, more than doubled last year. Amgen, which is expected to lose sales because of expiring patents in coming years, could add $4 billion to its annual revenue by 2024 if the Horizon merger goes through, according to analysts. | A new way to treat multiple myeloma Researchers have theorized that the GPRC5D protein might be harnessed to get the immune system to find and kill multiple myeloma cells. Results from a Janssen Phase 2 trial on talquetamab, a bispecific antibody targeting this protein, shows the theory does hold water. Talquetamab works by binding to the cancer cell on one side of the drug, and to a T cell on the other. This pulls the T cell closer to the cancer cell, so that it can kill the cancer cell more easily. Of 280 patients who participated in the trial, over 70% responded to the drug. “To me, this is the biggest thing to come out of ASH this year. It’s amazing,” one top myeloma expert, who was not involved in the study, told STAT. “It’s actually huge that we’ve got a new target.” Read more. | In-depth analysis of biopharma and the life sciences Sign up for STAT+ to access in-depth analysis of biopharma, inside intelligence from Capitol Hill, the latest on medicine tech, and more. Subscribe today to and start your free 30-day trial. | Novartis cuts down CAR-T manufacturing time CAR-T therapy can be a highly effective treatment for some blood cancers, but it’s time-consuming to manufacture. Companies have been trying to address this — and at ASH, Novartis presented Phase 1 trial data showing that CAR-T cells can be made with a rapid manufacturing process.
The new process slashes the manufacturing time from 10 days to two days, and may produce a more effective CAR-T cell. Of the 45 patients thus far in the trial, more than 60% had a complete response rate. The shorter manufacturing time is "the most obvious benefit, compared to current available products,” one cell therapy researcher not involved in the trial told STAT. “But from my perspective, what’s really interesting is the fact that [the process] may allow the product to be different — an improvement of the cell product itself and, hopefully, a more powerful product.” Read more. | Two companies show menin inhibitors work in leukemia An emerging class of genetically targeted drugs is inducing remissions in about one-third of people with acute myeloid leukemia, two separate studies show. Syndax Pharmaceuticals and Kura Oncology both have versions of menin inhibitors that block the cancer-linked proteins that interfere with healthy bone marrow cell differentiation. Syndax has already kicked off a registration study for its drug, revumenib, testing it in patients with two subtypes of AML. Initial results are expected in the second half of 2023, and if positive, it’ll submit the drug to the Food and Drug Administration for approval. Syndax is also testing revumenib in children with leukemia. Kura will begin a registration study for its drug, ziftomenib, early next year. Read more. | More reads - Progress report on Adicet’s ‘gamma-delta’ T cell therapy shows mixed results on durability of remissions, STAT
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- Argenx antibody drug benefits patients with platelet-destroying autoimmune disorder, STAT
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