Need to keep on high of the science and politics driving biotech as we speak? Enroll to get our biotech publication in your inbox.
Good morning. Jason Mast right here filling in for Elaine. We’ve received a dramatic vote on psychedelic remedy, report drug shortages, unhealthy (perhaps?) information for Biomarin, and a brand new sort of PrEP.
The necessity-to-know this morning
- Eli Lilly Chief Monetary Officer Anat Ashkenazi is leaving the company for a job exterior the pharmaceutical business, Lilly introduced. Askenazi is joining Alphabet and Google as its new CFO. A seek for a brand new CFO at Lilly is underway.
FDA panel recommends in opposition to approving MDMA-assisted remedy
An advisory committee yesterday voted overwhelmingly in opposition to each questions put to it by the Meals and Drug Administration on MDMA-assisted remedy, successfully recommending in opposition to what can be the primary approval of a psychedelic drug. The FDA doesn’t must comply with the suggestions of advisory panels however usually does.
The vote is a considerable blow to Lykos, the corporate that introduced the applying, and to the broader motion to develop psychedelics into FDA-approved therapies for numerous psychological well being circumstances. Over the past decade, traders have poured a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} into biotechs promising to show molecules like psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine, and LSD into medicine for circumstances akin to melancholy, anorexia, and dependancy. MDMA was the primary to go earlier than the FDA.
Lykos’ information appeared promising: In a single examine, 67% of sufferers who obtained MDMA not met PTSD diagnostic standards, in comparison with 32% of placebo sufferers. And the hassle received help amongst many veterans, who emphasised the dearth of options. However the firm confronted questions on practical unblinding — contributors may usually work out in the event that they obtained a psychedelic — and accusations it suppressed security issues, akin to suicidal ideation, together with issues about how the remedy can be administered.
Learn extra.
AstraZeneca is Actual Madrid, and different ASCO takeaways
Our triumvirate of most cancers correspondents boarded flights yesterday again from Chicago. Some high takeaways from the oncology confab:
- “AstraZeneca is the Actual Madrid of ASCO. Six plenary podiums in a row.”
- “If we’re speaking about this ASCO 5 years from now, it should most likely be due to the CAR-T leads to liver most cancers from AstraZeneca and AbelZeta.”
- “Plenty of chatter about discovering higher methods to cut back therapies when doable — one of many core tenets in oncology.”
And way more.
Drug shortages attain report excessive
U.S. drug shortages are rising longer and extra frequent, in line with a brand new report from U.S. Pharmacopeia, an unbiased group that develops requirements for medicines. The variety of drug shortages has elevated over the past decade, whereas a mean scarcity now lasts greater than three years, in comparison with two years in 2020. Of 125 medicine briefly provide, 27 had been that means for over 5 years.
A key driver is medicine which can be really too low cost. Most medicines in scarcity lower than $5, the report discovered. Low margins for generics drive out producers. If one of many remaining producers then experiences a top quality management subject, medicine can change into scarce.
Attainable options embody having the U.S. authorities present incentives for producers to improve services and hospitals to create so-called buffer inventories, whereas additionally paying bonuses to hospitals and medical doctors that make use of contracting practices that assist help sustainable provide. Learn extra from Ed Silverman.
Biomarin suffers one other setback, perhaps
New Biomarin CEO Alexander Hardy set a transparent precedence in his first public presentation in January: increasing the marketplace for Voxzogo, its drug for achondroplasia, the most typical type of dwarfism. Voxzogo was significantly very important as a result of Roctavian, a hemophilia gene remedy Hardy’s predecessor spent years hyping, was — and is — dealing with a catastrophically unhealthy launch.
So it wasn’t excellent news yesterday when a competitor, BridgeBio, introduced information suggesting its personal experimental capsule could also be simpler than Voxzogo. A “substantial headwind to BioMarin’s development within the long-term,” Baird analyst Jack Allen wrote.
Nonetheless, Biomarin’s shares rose about 3.5% yesterday. That appears to replicate two issues: Traders already baked aggressive threats into Biomarin’s inventory worth, which had fallen practically 30% from the beginning of 2023. And being first-to-market has its perks. Stifels analyst Paul Matteis wrote final month that by the point BridgeBio’s drug reaches market — seemingly 2027 — Voxzogo will seemingly be standard-of-care for younger achondroplasia sufferers and up for approval in hypochondroplasia, one other type of dwarfism.
Testing begins for a brand new type of PrEP
The NIH said yesterday it started two trials to see whether or not a brand new Gilead antiviral can forestall HIV infections with only one injection each six months. The outcomes, although not anticipated till 2027 and 2028, may remodel HIV prevention.
Though oral prophylaxis, referred to as PrEP, has been obtainable since 2012, it has gone vastly underused, due to price and different limitations, in addition to the problem for a lot of of taking a capsule each single day. Given the struggles the HIV vaccine subject has confronted, long-acting PrEP marks the most effective near-term hope for offering people with prolonged safety. A once-every-eight week shot was authorized in 2021, though international entry has been a wrestle. As soon as-a-year pictures are in early development.
Extra reads
- U.Okay. drug pricing regulator NICE endorses Eli Lilly’s Weight problems drug Zepbound, with a catch, Fierce Pharma
- Medicare Benefit plan’s high quality scores have been incorrectly calculated by authorities, choose guidelines, STAT
- Novo Holdings’ head of Asia on investing in ‘China for China,’ and staying out of biotech (for now), Endpoints
- Startup brings new hope to the pursuit of reviving frozen our bodies, Bloomberg
Correction: A earlier model of this publish incorrectly referred to Voxzogo, Biomarin’s dwarfism drug. It’s an injectable, not a capsule.
