A $2 billion IT issue

Shares of Legend Biotech rose about 20% yesterday after some dramatically positive data on its CAR-T cancer treatment got posted online months ahead of schedule. Then, adding to the confusion, the company sold millions of shares to an institutional investor at what was suddenly a discounted price.

The big news, as STAT's Adam Feuerstein reports, is the patient benefit: The treatment, Carvykti, reduced the risk of relapse by 74% compared to standard treatment in patients with multiple myeloma, a result that far exceeded expectations and will likely persuade doctors to use the personalized cell therapy earlier in the course of treatment.

The weird part is the timing. The Carvykti abstract was slated for presentation at the annual meeting of the European Hematology Association in June, and yet it appeared on the conference website on Tuesday night before getting taken down, but not before the news added about $2 billion to Legend's value.

Then, yesterday, Legend said in a regulatory filing that it had agreed to sell nearly 8 million shares to a single, unnamed investor at its pre-abstract stock price — which is to say it was selling stock at a 20% discount to the market rate. Asked about the curious timing of the deal, a Legend spokesperson said it was "priced as of the closing price on April 18" and that the company had "no further comment."

Chart of the day

Where do new drugs come from?

D3 vis exported to PNG (50)

The closely watched XBI biotech index is up about 10% over the last month, reversing its winter decline thanks to a few high-dollar acquisitions and positive data readouts.

Those recent gains mean the XBI is now about flat since the start of 2023, but after last year's nearly 30% decline, stasis is a welcome alternative.

Meanwhile, the recent acquisitions of Prometheus Biosciences and Bellus Health have reverberated among investors, Bloomberg reported, serving as a reminder that major pharma companies are willing to pay sizable premiums for biotechs with late-stage drug candidates.

Research

All the news from AACR

While an errant post from a different oncology conference claimed the headlines yesterday, the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research had plenty of data worth your attention.

STAT's Angus Chen was on the ground in Orlando, and his recap of the conference includes the resurgent field of cancer vaccines, a disappointing update on a hotly anticipated new treatment, and how a deep learning model promises to spare patients from unneeded rounds of chemotherapy.

Read more.

Drug prices

PhRMA: Medicare negotiation is 'an exercise in punishing drug manufacturers'

A month after Medicare disclosed the first details of how it will approach drug pricing negotiation, leaders of PhRMA, the industry's largest lobbying group, are decrying the process as unfair and the policy as unwise.

As STAT's John Wilkerson reports, PhRMA argues that the government isn't giving drugmakers and patients a chance to weigh in on its plan, which will eventually subject certain medicines to price negotiation. "This is really an exercise in punishing drug manufacturers," said Lauren Neves, deputy vice president for policy and research at PhRMA.

Industry executives said they've had plenty of meetings with federal officials, but their input is getting ignored. There's little hope of persuading a divided Congress to change the program anytime soon, PhRMA Chief Operating Officer Lori Reilly said. It presumably doesn't help that "punishing drug manufacturers" sounds like more of a feature than a bug to many lawmakers and their constituents.

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