August 6, 2025

The need-to-know this morning

Amgen earnings, reported Tuesday night, are here.

pharma

RFK Jr. cancels U.S. investment in mRNA vaccines

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last night announced that the government's emergency preparedness agency, BARDA, will no longer fund work on messenger RNA vaccines.

Experts on pandemic preparedness expressed horror at the news, saying it delivers a huge blow to the country's capacity to develop vaccines during the next public health emergency.

This development was presaged by HHS' announcement in late May to cancel $766 million in contracts with Moderna to develop, test, and license several vaccines for flu viruses that have pandemic potential, including H5N1 bird flu.

In the announcement last night, HHS said it is also rejecting or canceling multiple pre-award solicitations, including proposals from Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur, and other companies. Altogether, the move affects 22 projects totaling nearly $500 million, HHS said.

biotech

BridgeBio is cursed by the lofty standards set by itself and Alnylam

BridgeBio yesterday reported that its new heart drug Attruby brought in $71.5 million in the second quarter. That beat the $67.6 million expected by analysts polled by Visible Alpha, yet the biotech's stock dropped 12% in post-market trading.

Many investors wanted to see even higher numbers. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Josh Schimmer wrote last week that Attruby revenue of more than $75 million would have likely driven shares higher.

Investors' high expectations came after BridgeBio reported results in the first quarter that blew past predictions and after competitor Alnylam said last week that its new drug was off to a stronger-than-expected launch.

The two companies are selling treatments for transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, or ATTR-CM, a progressive heart disease that has turned out to be more common that once thought.

Despite the negative stock reaction, analysts pointed out that BridgeBio's results were still very positive. The biotech has seen an acceleration of new patients starting on its drug, particularly patients starting therapy for the first time, said Mizuho analyst Salim Syed.

Novo Nordisk

Lars logs off

From my colleague Andrew Joseph: Today marks Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen's last day as Novo Nordisk CEO, and as for what comes next for the company veteran, he said he's not going to make a decision until he takes some time off.

"You'll see me on a tennis court and hiking and stuff like that, while thinking carefully about the future," Jørgensen said on a call with reporters this morning, tied to the company's earnings report. He added that "not a lot of companies compare to the opportunity I've had here."

Jørgensen, who's been at Novo for more than 30 years and led the firm for eight, cited the growth of the company, its sales, and its profits as accomplishments during his run. But he's also departing amid months of a falling share price, Novo's struggles to keep up with Eli Lilly's products in the obesity and diabetes market, and broader questions about the Danish pharma's strategy going forward. Last week, as the company announced another longtime Novo executive, Maziar Mike Doustdar, would take over as CEO starting Thursday, it also cut its 2025 outlook.

In addition to competition from Eli Lilly, Novo has blamed the slowdown in its growth in the U.S. on the continued use of compounded semaglutide, the key ingredient in its branded drugs Wegovy and Ozempic.

Speaking to reporters, Jørgensen declined to name specific regrets, only saying that, "It's very, very easy to say in hindsight what you could have done differently."

At times, there was an elegiac quality to the call. When asked about the size of the U.S. market for obesity drugs, Jørgensen deferred to CFO Karsten Munk Knudsen.

"I don't think it's good style to make a lot of future predictions when you're on the last day of your tenure," Jørgensen said.

science

Trump's crackdown on foreign grants is jeopardizing rare disease research

The Trump administration has been cracking down on NIH grants being used to support international research collaborations, citing concerns over national security. But the move has severely disrupted rare disease research that's especially reliant on global partnerships, since there are so few patients in any one country.

Due to a shortfall in funds, researchers have had to pause or greatly scale back rare disease studies, including clinical trials of promising new drugs, my colleague Megan Molteni reports.

With NIH support, researchers could previously reimburse patients for travel to see experts for data collection, but also for specialized care, said the director of one group whose funding was pulled. But "that's no longer possible. And all the lab work underway — to develop animal models of disease and biomarkers that can be used in clinical trials — that's all going to have to wind down."

politics

How far is Trump's bully pulpit taking him on health policy?

Unlike previous administrations, the Trump administration for the most part isn't enacting regulations or pushing Congress to write laws to tackle its health priorities. Instead, its demanding companies take voluntary action, offering incentives for those who comply and promising harsh penalties for those who don't.

Last week, for example, Trump escalated his demand that pharma companies lower drug prices in line with what other countries pay, telling the firms that "if you refuse to step up, we will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices."

This approach represents a historic expansion of presidential power, my colleagues write. But so far, the results have been mixed.

It seems to have worked with some food companies, which have agreed to remove artificial dyes from their products, but it hasn't worked as well on pharma companies, which have continued to hold out on lowering drug prices.