| | | |   | Hello, everyone. Damian here with the latest on the Covid-19 company that wasn't, promising early results with an RNA medicine, and an expansive look at the hepatitis C crisis among incarcerated Americans. | | | Novavax, struggling to make money, is borrowing some Novavax, a business-school case study happening in real time, is taking on debt after missing a historic opportunity to profit from its potent Covid-19 vaccine — news that further depressed its decimated stock price.
The company said last night that it would raise $125 million by selling notes that come due in 2027, concurrently offering $125 million of stock in a public sale. That stock, which fell about 13% after hours, has lost 90% of its value since January, as Novavax repeatedly failed to keep its commercial and regulatory promises with a vaccine that, according to clinical trials, was at least as powerful as the blockbuster products from Moderna and partners Pfizer and BioNTech.
Novavax has repeatedly downsized its revenue projections for 2023, from $5 billion at the start of the year to just $2 billion as of last quarter. Now the company could be facing a cash crunch. Novavax burned through about $170 million in the last quarter, driven by a $249 million charge related to "excess, obsolete, or expired inventory" and losses on previous vaccine purchase agreements. | How the price of curative drugs contributed to a crisis Curative treatments for hepatitis C, while dramatically cheaper than they were a decade ago, remain impractically expensive for some state prison systems with small budgets and thousands of inmates infected with the virus.
That’s one facet of an expansive investigation by STAT’s Nicholas Florko, which found that more than 1,000 incarcerated people died from hepatitis C-related complications between 2014 and 2019 despite the availability of oral treatments that can cure the disease. The death rate in 2019 was double that of the broader U.S. population.
That’s in part because the drugs remain pricey, and treating everyone infected with the virus would eat up a big chunk of the prison medical budget in some states. But incarcerated people are fighting back. Some have sued for access to the treatment and won, forcing the system to care for them and, in some cases, other incarcerated hepatitis C patients.
Read more. | 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.
| Getting to the bottom of a frightening side effect A generation of powerful medicines that tinker with the immune system have delivered life-changing benefits to patients with cancer and autoimmune disorders. But in rare cases, those same drugs can awaken a dormant virus and unleash a deadly brain disease. Now, new research suggests a genetic explanation — and a way to protect patients against the frightening side effect.
As STAT’s Jonathan Wosen reports, scientists discovered four genetic variants that significantly increase a person’s risk of developing the brain disease PML, short for progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. The variants were more common in people with PML than in the general population, and, intriguingly, they were absent in patients with multiple sclerosis who’d taken immune-modulating drugs for years without developing the disease.
A test for those four variants could reduce cases of PML by about 9.4%, scientists estimate, which could help not only prevent disease but help convince patients that proven medicines are safe enough to try.
Read more. | Rare progress for a stubborn scientific problem Avidity Bio said yesterday that its experimental RNA-based drug reduced levels of a disease-driving gene by an average of 45% in a small group of patients with the rare and potentially fatal muscular disease myotonic dystrophy type 1.
Although still early, the data are notable not only for myotonic dystrophy patients, who have no approved treatments, but also for wider efforts to deliver RNA into muscle cells. To date, RNA-based approaches have generally been limited to the liver. Multiple muscle-targeted drugs from Sarepta Therapeutics have been approved for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, but their efficacy has been heavily contested.
Avidity and a handful of other biotechs — including, most recently, Vertex Pharmaceuticals — are trying to solve the challenge by linking the RNA to proteins that guide them to the right cells. The approach could have important implications for a range of dystrophies, including Duchenne. | More reads - Lawmakers tell Pfizer CEO to ‘back off’ on planned price hike for Covid-19 vaccine, STAT
- Novartis offloads five eye drugs in deal worth up to $175 million, Endpoints
- Nine in 10 health care companies with financial stress are owned by private equity, STAT
| Thanks for reading! Until tomorrow,  | | | |
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