Leerink Partners is back

The venerable health care investment bank led by Jeff Leerink will once again hang its eponymous shingle in Boston's financial district, following a breakaway transaction from the failed lender SVB Financial Group.

Under terms of the deal announced on Sunday, Leerink, backed by funds from The Baupost Group, is buying back the investment banking and medical research firm he founded in 1995. Leerink had sold the shop to SVB Financial Group in 2019, which was then renamed SVB Securities.

Once the deal closes — which Leerink described as "our next chapter as an independent investment bank" — he will be resurrecting the Leerink Partners brand.

"This transaction allows us to continue providing clients with high-quality advice and execution services for their M&A, capital raising and investment transactions," said Leerink, in a letter emailed to clients on Sunday.

oncology

Patients should be 'rioting in the streets'

There's a pressing shortage of vitally important cancer drugs, which is forcing oncologists to ration them — making it harder to treat curable diseases. Generic drugs like cisplatin and carboplatin, which are used to treat a wide array of cancers, have been particularly scarce for the past month. This is an outrage, opines San Diego-based oncologist Kristen Rice. She and her colleagues have to carefully tabulate how they use these medicines, and are now unable to treat some patients because of dwindling supplies.

"Yet it doesn't seem like there's much sense of urgency to fix the problem," Rice writes. "The economics of manufacturing generic drugs are broken." The only way these shortages can be allayed, she says, is if the private sector and policymakers prioritize this issue — and ensure that the pipeline for important generic medicines is stabilized permanently.

gene therapy

FDA nears decision on Duchenne therapy

Sarepta Therapeutics is expecting to hear from the FDA on Thursday about granting conditional approval to its gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

A marketing clearance is expected, although it will likely be limited to boys aged 4 to 5, where the gene therapy has shown greater efficacy. Sarepta has been seeking a broader approval to cover all boys under 10 who can still walk, but the company said last month that the FDA was more likely to grant a narrower approval, pending additional data from an ongoing clinical trial.

public shaming

U.K. trade group scolds Leo Pharma, others

Leo Pharma, a Danish maker of dermatological drugs, has been chastised by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry for "serious and extremely concerning" code violations. A manager at Leo tried to get pricing information from a rival, so that its products could ultimately appear more cost effective to regulators and insurers. The company has admitted to the transgression, saying "a comprehensive internal investigation was launched, followed by appropriate disciplinary action."

The U.K. trade group also rebuked AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo, saying both had omitted or provided misleading safety information. It will run advertisements noting the various company violations as part of an effort to bolster the industry's image.