A surprising alliance wants to expand Medicare coverage for obesity drugs

An effort to expand Medicare coverage for obesity drugs has forged some rather unlikely allies. The pharmaceutical industry, the NAACP, a cancer center, and a nonpartisan think tank have banded together to change a law that prevents Medicare from paying for trendy drugs that treat conditions like obesity, erectile dysfunction, hair loss, and infertility.

The new semaglutide drugs for weight loss are highly effective, but also costly — which is why this is expected to be an uphill battle to obtain Medicare coverage.

"The really good news is we have something we can do about [obesity], so now it's a political question at the end of the day," said Marcus Schabacker, president and CEO of the independent nonprofit patient safety organization ECRI. "Do we get enough traction? Do we get enough attention for this?"

farewell

George Scangos ending his tenure as a biotech CEO

After nearly four decades as one of biotech's most noteworthy figures, George Scangos will retire — stepping down from his current post as CEO of Vir Biotechnology. He'll be succeeded by Marianne De Backer, who leads pharmaceutical strategy at Bayer. The company, under Scangos' leadership, gained traction during the pandemic with its antibody drug sotrovimab. It's now developing new candidates for Covid and other infectious diseases. In an interview with STAT, a clearly emotional Scangos said he'd been a biotech CEO without interruption since 1996 — "and it's just time for me to move on to a different phase of my life." That said, he's not finished with biotech: "I don't see a rocking chair in my near future," he said.

Scangos is most known for turning around Biogen in 2010 in the midst of a brutal battle between the company and activist investor Carl Icahn. He discarded programs in diseases where he felt Biogen wasn't competitive, like cancer, and doubled down on areas like neuroscience. Scangos counts the creation of spinal muscular atrophy drug Spinraza as one of his greatest accomplishments.

startup close-up

Using AI to optimize RNA structures

Bay Area startup Atomic AI is using artificial intelligence to understand and predict the three-dimensional shape of RNA molecules. The company intends to help biotechs identify RNA-targeting drugs, and to design RNA to be stable, compact, or have other desired properties.

RNA molecules are increasingly useful in medical therapies — from Covid-19 vaccines and beyond — but have tremendously complex structures that impact its function. So although artificial intelligence tools like AlphaFold exist to delve into protein structure, there isn't an equivalent for RNA. The company isn't revealing what targets it's focusing on, but did say that RNA-targeting small molecule drugs have tremendous potential in a variety of medical conditions.

immuno-oncology

Keytruda's third Phase 3 flop in prostate cancer

Merck pulled the plug on Keytruda, its powerhouse cancer immunotherapy, in a Phase 3 study of its efficacy in metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. Independent reviewers concluded the drug wasn't likely to be successful; an interim analysis showed Keytruda didn't improve life expectancy or slow tumor progression.

As FiercePharma points out, this is the third time Keytruda has failed for prostate cancer in late-stage trials this past year. Despite this series of failures, Merck plans to continue studying Keytruda-based combinations in patients with prostate cancer.