Feng Zhang's new company goes beyond CRISPR

CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang's latest startup is focused not on the genome-editing technology that made him famous, but rather on a problem that has long vexed biotech: How do you make sure such newfangled medicines actually reach their bodily targets?

As STAT's Allison DeAngelis reports, Zhang's company is called Aera Therapeutics, and it has raised $193 million to develop a novel technology for delivering cutting-edge therapies. The idea is to succeed where older methods, like viral vectors and lipid nanoparticles, have fallen short.

Using the technology SEND — short for Selective Endogenous eNcapsidation for cellular Delivery — Aera believes it can safely and precisely get CRISPR, RNA, and other hard-to-handle payloads where they need to go.

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Financials

Biogen's better days are still a ways away

That's according to CEO Chris Veihbacher, who used his first quarterly Q&A at the company to explain that while Biogen's decline will continue in 2023, it's finally on the path to restoring growth.

As STAT's Adam Feuerstein reports, Biogen said its annual revenue will decline by "mid-single digits" versus 2022, implying sales of $9.7 billion, which is slightly higher than the current analyst consensus of $9.4 billion.

"For the last couple of years, Biogen has lost its way somewhat and is in a declining revenue situation," Veihbacher said. "So the first order of the day is to restore growth to the company." That means making the most of two drug launches: Leqembi, an Eisai-partnered treatment for Alzheimer's disease, and zuranolone, a depression medicine co-developed with Sage Therapeutics.

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Covid-19

Moderna, facing criticism, says Americans will not pay for its vaccine

Moderna said yesterday that it would ensure its Covid-19 vaccine is available to Americans free of charge once the U.S. government stops distributing doses. The decision coincided with news that a powerful Senate committee planned to take Moderna's CEO to task over its previous plans to price the vaccine at $110-$130 a dose.

As STAT's Ed Silverman and Sarah Owermohle report, Moderna said it would implement a patient-assistance program that would cover the cost of vaccination for people with insufficient insurance. It's not clear how Moderna will make sure people with commercial insurance don't pay out of pocket for the shot. The CDC can require insurers to cover vaccines with no copay, but it has not yet extended that policy to Covid-19 vaccines.

Moderna's announcement came on the same day that Sen. Bernie Sanders, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, accused the company of "corporate greed" and scheduled a hearing next month to examine its initial decision to roughly quintuple the list price for its vaccine.

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Personnel

The return of a yesteryear pharmaceutical celebrity

Brent Saunders, an executive synonymous with a pharma ideology that has fallen out of vogue, is returning to the heights of the industry, assuming the role of CEO for the eye-care company Bausch + Lomb.

Saunders is a controversial figure in the pharmaceutical world. In the 2010s, he rose to prominence by engineering a series of acquisitions to craft what would become Actavis, a corporate roll-up focused on high-margin therapeutic areas. His coup came in 2014 when Actavis rescued Allergan, maker of Botox, from a hostile takeover by the cynically-run Valeant Pharmaceuticals, creating a profitable behemoth. A year later, Allergan signed a deal to sell itself to Pfizer for $160 billion, an agreement that put Saunders on the path to leading the biggest drug company in the world.

Then it all started to unravel. The U.S. government rescinded the tax benefit that attracted Pfizer to Allergan, and the deal fell apart. Allergan endured a series of pipeline disappointments, and its move to thwart generic competition by transferring drug patents to a Native American tribe led to fierce criticism. In 2019, Allergan sold itself to AbbVie for $63 billion, a fraction of the price Pfizer would have paid, and Saunders receded from the spotlight.

Wall Street's reaction to Saunders' return suggests that — despite how the Allergan saga ended — he's still perceived as a canny deal-maker. Bausch + Lomb's stock price rose about 8% on the news, and Bausch Health, which owns a majority stake in the company, gained nearly 20%.