March 25, 2025

The need-to-know this morning

Merck has acquired an experimental, oral drug that targets lipoprotein(a) for the treatment of cardiovascular disease from China's Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals. Merck paid $200 million in upfront cash for global rights to the drug, outside of China. Hengrui is eligible to receive another $1.8 billion in potential milestone payments.
Scholar Rock said regulators in the U.S. and Europe accepted its marketing application for apitegromab as a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy. The FDA decision is expected on or before Sept. 22.

genetic testing

23andMe's bankruptcy is bad for all parties involved

The news that 23andMe has field for bankruptcy is, of course, bad for co-founder Anne Wojcicki and for investors, but it's worst of all for the company's customers, my colleague Matt Herper writes.

At best, customers likely face the loss of the good aspects of the company, such as patient networking and the possibility of developing treatments. In a worse scenario, they may also face new risks to the security of their genetic data if that data are sold off in pieces.

It's unclear how much value lies in the genetic data that 23andMe has collected. The company was aiming to use the data to power scientific discoveries and speed the development of new treatments. Its tests were limited, though, as they yielded only a certain number of genetic locations, not full DNA sequences. The situation is further complicated by the possibility that customers may ask 23andMe to delete their data, which would make its databases less valuable.

obesity

Novo follows Lilly with its own 'triple-G' drug

Novo Nordisk said yesterday that it's licensed a new obesity drug from The United Laboratories, a Chinese drugmaker.

The treatment, called UBT251, activates receptors of three hormones: GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon. This is the same mechanism as Eli Lilly's next-generation "triple-G" drug retatrutide, which has so far appeared to be the most effective obesity drug in development.

In a small early trial of UBT251, patients on the highest dose lost 15% of their weight over three months, and The United Laboratories recently started a mid-stage trial in China. Lilly is much further along, as it's currently running several Phase 3 studies.

The licensing deal by Novo is a reminder of how competitive the obesity field has become, with companies racing to develop therapies that can lead to more and more weight loss. Doctors are starting to get concerned by this push, fearing that too much weight loss too quickly may actually introduce harms to patients.

obesity

Novo expands cash pay offering, undercutting Lilly

In other obesity news, Novo yesterday also announced that it would expand an offering of its obesity drug Wegovy for cash-paying patients, meaning those paying on their own without insurance.

Novo had started selling all doses of Wegovy, which carries a list price of about $1,350 a month, at a lower price of $499 a month to cash-paying patients who use Novo's new direct-to-consumer website called NovoCare Pharmacy. The company is now expanding that $499 offering to all cash-paying patients, including those who fulfill orders at traditional retail pharmacies.

Novo's new offering looks to offer broader access than what Lilly has done. Lilly began selling its obesity drug Zepbound directly to patients last year through its platform called LillyDirect. It sells all but the highest doses of Zepbound through LillyDirect, and at prices ranging from $349 to $699 a month, while Novo sells all doses of Wegovy up to the highest dose at the same price. Additionally, Lilly's offering is only limited to patients who use its online platform.

biotech

Gene therapies are still on a promising (though non-linear) path

Amid the downturn in the cell and gene therapy space, Tim Hunt, CEO of the advocacy group Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, argues that there's great cause for optimism.

"The pollyannish expect miracles, and the 'sky-is-falling' crowd can only see doom and gloom," but progress in biotech is often non-linear, he writes in a new opinion piece.

Hunt thinks the field of cell and gene therapies is following a path very similar to that of monoclonal antibodies, which was on the precipice of failure shortly before the FDA approved new treatments that went on to become blockbuster products.