Markets
Gas prices are hurting biotech
The biggest index of biotech stocks turned red for the year, and it had nothing to do with clinical trials, drug revenues, or pharmaceutical mergers.
The news is that the Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation, came in fractionally above economists' expectations. Among the major culprits is gas: It's expensive, and combined with housing it contributed more than half of the monthly increase in the CPI. That means inflation isn't deflating at the rate economists hoped, which means the Fed is unlikely to start cutting interest rates as quickly as expected — and that, tunneling all the way down to biotech, means investors won't look as favorably on high-risk ideas like developing new drugs.
The XBI, a closely watched index of biotech stocks, fell about 2% on the news. That means after a volatile first quarter in which biotech traded on things that directly relate to the drug industry, it's now down more than 1% for 2024 thanks to things that don't.
Alzheimer's
On Leqembi, Medicare is more bullish than Wall Street
Medicare is projecting to spend billions of dollars next year on Leqembi, an Alzheimer's disease treatment from Eisai and Biogen, projecting sales that far outstrip analysts' expectations for the drug.
As STAT's Bob Herman and Rachel Cohrs Zhang report, Medicare's actuaries expect Leqembi to cost the program around $550 million in 2024 and $3.5 billion in 2025.
Medicare's estimates dramatically outpace Eisai's own estimates for Leqembi sales. In an update last month, the company forecast Leqembi revenue from North and South America of around $1.3 billion — but not for another two years, from April 2026 to March 2027. Even that figure is just a third of what Medicare is estimating for 2025 alone.
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Policy
BIO's tumult is still unfolding
BIO, the biotech industry's biggest trade group, has parted with its top lobbyist in the latest upheaval in a years-long shakeup at the organization.
As STAT's Rachel Cohrs Zhang and John Wilkerson report, Nick Shipley, BIO's chief advocacy officer, made a sudden departure last week, according to people familiar with the matter. An email to BIO's executive committee said CEO John Crowley, who took the reins in December, is "considering structural changes in the near future which could impact whether or not the role is permanently filled."
Shipley, who joined BIO in 2021, worked under three CEOs over the course of his tenure. The organization has shifted its strategy in recent years after an exodus of leadership and a messy separation with former CEO Michelle McMurry-Heath.
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Research
Cancer vaccines are having a moment
After years of stuttering progress and consistent disappointment, the field of cancer vaccines — custom-made injections that would train the immune system to attack tumors — might finally be turning a corner.
That's according to experts gathered at this year's American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, who told STAT's Angus Chen that new technology and better science has pushed researchers closer than ever to the promise of personalized cancer vaccines.
The ideal medicine would combine the right biological target, the right delivery technology, and the right stage of disease. "With advances in essentially all three of those questions, in recent years, this has now given the community some sense of how you might develop an effective cancer vaccine," said Vinod Balachandran, a cancer researcher and surgical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
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