Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann (via Agreus Group)
While the ultimate fate of Novartis’ big generics arm Sandoz may still be up in the air, there’s no doubt it’s in play as a potential buyout target.
Overnight, Reuters picked up on a report out of Germany that EQT and the billionaire Strüngmann brothers — enjoying a huge windfall from the overnight success of BioNTech’s mRNA Covid vaccine — are kicking the tires at Sandoz. And Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan confirmed it.
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Stéphane Bancel (AP Images, Boston Herald)
Moderna says that it’s on its way to having an mRNA vaccine against not one, but two different seasonal viruses.
The biotech released the first early data from its flu program Friday morning, announcing that all doses of the shot significantly boosted antibodies in younger and older adults without ‘significant safety findings.’
A 500-person Phase II dose-confirming study is already enrolled, the company said, and preparations for a large pivotal trial are underway. Moderna said it is also advancing new designs that can have potentially broader coverage of different flu strains than current shots.
Mathai Mammen, J&J EVP of pharmaceuticals, R&D (Rob Tannenbaum)
The new J&J has a fresh corporate face to show the public — several in fact.
As the healthcare conglomerate follows a now familiar pharma path in separating itself into an innovation-focused R&D-based group from its less appealing consumer side, it’s promoting some key individuals to the executive committee that steers the company.
Those fresh faces include Mathai Mammen, the global head of R&D who joins the inner circle as executive vice president of pharmaceuticals, R&D. External innovation chief Bill Hait becomes executive vice president, chief external innovation, medical safety and global public health officer. Jim Swanson, until today simply the chief information officer, adds the EVP part to his title in moving onto the committee. And Vanessa Broadhurst, company group chairman, global commercial strategy organization, has been appointed EVP, global corporate affairs.
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KEY POINTS
Patients prefer oral dosing, but swallowing tablets can be a challenge for many patients. The Zydis® orally disintegrating tablet (ODT) platform addresses challenges associated with oral dosing, expanding benefits for patients and options for healthcare providers. A strong growth trajectory is expected for ODTs given therapeutic innovation and continued technology development.
Many patients prefer conventional tablets for the administration of medications, but some geriatric and pediatric patients and those with altered mental status and physical impairments find swallowing tablets to be difficult. Orally disintegrating tablets (ODTs), which dissolve completely without chewing or sucking, offer a patient-friendly dosage form for the administration of small-molecule drugs, peptides and proteins. With the potential for multiple sites of drug absorption, often faster onset action for the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), and potentially greater bioavailability, ODTs are an attractive option for drug developers considering first-to-market formulations or product line extensions of existing drugs with compatible API. In this report, we look at how innovation in the industry-leading Zydis ODT platform is expanding oral formulation options and bringing benefits to patients.
Please signup to continue — it’s fast and free. This article is sponsored by Catalent and produced by Endpoints Studio. Boris Johnson at a press conference Dec. 8, after discussions on restrictions as a result of the Omicron variant (Adrian Dennis/Pool via AP Images)
With reports of Omicron cases in over 50 countries, and at least 19 US states, some regions like the UK are now expecting a rapid rise of Omicron as community spread takes off.
While the UK has only seen about 800 Omicron cases so far, the government’s Health Security Agency warned that if the recent growth rate continues, ‘we expect to see at least 50 percent of Covid-19 cases to be caused by the Omicron variant in the next two to four weeks,’ according to the New York Times.
Each year, we aim to highlight 20 extraordinary women who are leaving their mark on drug R&D — and this year’s group was no exception.
Our list, while by no means exhaustive, includes scientists, CEOs, researchers and professors who are supercharging the discovery and development of new therapies worldwide. Our team of writers spent time with each honoree (with a few exceptions), learning their stories and sketching profiles, which you’ll find in our special report.
For the second time, we brought the celebration to a live virtual audience, featuring an award presentation followed by a panel on what it takes to break the glass ceiling in biopharma with Kojin Therapeutics CEO Luba Greenwood, AskBio CEO Sheila Mikhail, and Silverback Therapeutics CEO Laura Shawver. Our panelists had a lively discussion on how the industry’s culture has changed, how to handle sexual harassment, the progress we’ve made and the challenges that still hold women back today.
We applaud each of our honorees for scaling the heights of biopharma R&D. You got to meet most of them via brief recordings we played during our live event. Below, you’ll find bonus videos offering a longer glimpse into those interviews. And if you didn’t get a chance to tune in to our main event live, you can replay the entire show.
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Members of the public disembark a train at King Cross Station in London, on the day that extra measures are put in place to fight the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Since Nov. 30, it’s been mandatory for people in England to wear face coverings in shops and on public transport. (Ben Cawthra/Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Images)
Like hundreds of other virologists and epidemiologists, Benjamin tenOever’s Thanksgiving weekend was interrupted with emails about an emergency Omicron meeting.
But when he logged onto a WHO conference call 9 a.m. Monday morning, officials had a surprisingly upbeat spin on the little-understood variant that had already prompted leaders around the world, fearful the strain could evade vaccines, to close their borders to broad swaths of Southern Africa.
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Viatris (Mylan/Pfizer’s Upjohn) and India’s Biocon Biologics are reportedly pondering whether to further entwine their biosimilar businesses into a $10 billion standalone company, according to sources from Nisha Poddar at an Indian affiliate of CNBC.
Earlier this summer, the two companies won the first highly-coveted interchangeability designation for their biosimilar Semglee, which is an insulin that’s interchangeable with Sanofi’s Lantus. Although, in a bizarre twist with the way the US insulin market works, the companies had to launch two versions of the interchangeable — one at a 65% discount, and one at a much higher price in order to gain market share.
Angion’s lead organ damage drug took two strikes earlier this year, flopping as a repurposed effort for Covid-19 and whiffing in high-risk kidney transplant patients. The biotech reported a third on Thursday, raising serious questions about the program’s future.
In a Phase II study looking at some cardiac surgery patients at risk of kidney injury, Angion reported its ANG-3777 candidate missed badly on the primary endpoint. The results come about a month and a half after the kidney transplant study and less than five months after the Covid-19 trial, ostensibly leaving the candidate on the chopping block.
Margaret Koziel has bounced back and forth between academia and biotech throughout her career — and after 25 years, she has landed her first position as part of a biotech’s top brass.
Koziel joined Axcella Therapeutics — founded by Flagship’s Noubar Afeyan, Geoffrey von Maltzahn and David Berry as Axcella Health — in 2019, and as of Monday, she is now in the C-suite as the biotech’s new CMO.
https://endpts.com/billionaire-biontech-backers-have-been-kicking-the-tires-at-novartis-big-generics-arm-report/
