February 3, 2025

The need-to-know this morning

Tectonic Therapeutics raised $185 million in a PIPE transaction with a syndicate of health care investment funds. The new financing follows last week's reporting of positive study results on an experimental treatment for a form of hypertension caused by heart failure.
Invivyd reported progress on the development of a next-generation antibody drug to protect people against Covid-19 as an alternative to vaccines. In an early-stage study, the antibody called VYD2311 showed sustained blood levels to support once- or twice-yearly injections, with antiviral activity greater than the company's first-generation antibody, Pemgarda. Separately, Invivys said fourth-quarter sales of Pemgarda grew 48% quarter over quarter to $13.8 million. The company ended the year with $69.3 million in cash.

POLITICS

How Trump's tariffs may raise health care costs

President Trump's new tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China are expected to raise some costs across the economy, including in health care, by increasing prices for pharmaceutical ingredients, medical devices, and hospital supplies.

Experts warn the tariffs could also exacerbate drug shortages, as generic drug manufacturers operating on thin margins may be unable to absorb the additional costs and might exit the market.

Some argue that reducing reliance on China for pharmaceutical ingredients is necessary for long-term supply chain resilience, STAT's John Wilkerson reports. But others caution that tariffs might not actually boost domestic manufacturing, and the gaps in medical supplies could be tremendous.

politics

Nobel laureates call to resist Trump's scientific freeze

A spate of Nobel laureates, including former NIH director Harold Varmus and CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna, are calling on the National Academies and biotech CEOs to resist what they see as the Trump administration's sweeping attacks on scientific inquiry, STAT's Megan Molteni reports. Since Trump's return to office, executive orders have frozen funding, halted research projects, and threatened the independence of scientific institutions, particularly through ideological bans on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives

The National Academies has received several "stop work" orders from the new administration, according to an email obtained by STAT.

Scientists worry that Trump's measures will hobble America's ability to lead the global biotech sector. "There's an economic story to be made here," said Carol Greider, who won a Nobel in 2009 for her work with telomeres. "We need those CEOs and company executives to speak out for us."

artificial intelligence

China is investing deeply in AI-driven drug discovery

The rise of DeepSeek, a relatively unknown AI firm based in Hangzhou, China, shocked the industry last week. It was a reminder how just how quickly Chinese companies — including drugmakers — are leveraging the technology.

China is rapidly emerging at the forefront of AI-driven drug development, STAT contributor Brian Yang reports. He notes that XTalPi, a China-based company harnessing AI for drug discovery, secured a deal worth up to $250 million in upfront and milestone payments with Eli Lilly in 2023. Insilico Medicine, which has operations in the U.S., China, and Hong Kong, has struck other agreements.

"China's high-tech companies aren't just catching up — they're redefining the battle," one China-based drug executive said.

Cancer

Pfizer's Braftovi extends survival in colorectal cancer

From STAT's Matthew Herper: Pfizer said this morning that a targeted cancer drug, Braftovi, showed a clinically significant improvement in survival and progression-free survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer that tests positive for a particular mutation in the BRAF gene, called a V600E mutation.

Braftovi, a BRAF inhibitor, was originally developed to be used in combination with another drug, Mektovi, for metastatic melanoma; the two medicines generated $173 million in the third quarter of 2024, most of it in the U.S. But researchers have found that the V600 mutation in the BRAF gene also plays a role in colon cancer.

This was one of several cancer drug readouts Pfizer had told investors to expect by the end of the year. Roger Dansey, Pfizer's chief oncology officer, said in a press release that the Braftovi regimen "is emerging as a new standard of care as the first targeted therapy approved for use as early as first-line for patients with mCRC with a BRAF V600E mutation."

Braftovi received accelerated approval from the Food and Drug Administration in December 2024 based on earlier data showing significant tumor shrinkage.

artificial intelligence

Insitro cuts its oncology arm

From STAT's Jason Mast: Insitro, the closely watched machine learning biotech from prominent computer scientist Daphne Koller, has halted its work on cancer, the company confirmed to STAT.

Oncology was one of three areas that Insitro, backed with $643 million from prominent VC firms, was attempting to tackle. Four members of the oncology team were let go as part of the move, along with four other staff members, a spokesman said. He added that Insitro has kept growing overall, adding 20 positions over the last three months to grow the company to around 300 people.

That still leaves Insitro with research in neuroscience, including ALS, and metabolic disease, in part through partnerships with Gilead, Bristol Myers Squibb. and Eli Lilly.

Launched in 2019, the company has consistently pitched itself as a careful, diligent player in a field dominated by hype and wild promisees. So far, it's work has yielded a couple papers, regarded as solid and respectable if unspectacular, on using AI to find new drug targets. But Koller has cautioned it's still early days. "I think what we have done really well is not saying, 'Oh, my God, this is going to transform drug discovery, in two years we're going to have thousands of drugs in the clinic,'" Koller told STAT last year. "There are companies who did that and we did not. Because we believe that we're in it for a long-term game, that doing things right takes time."

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