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Global Biotech News
2023-07-07 A WSJ article suggests a trillion-dollar opportunity to China business from Middle East. China's increasing clout in Middle East are paying off as many China companies are getting substantial capital from Middle East's biggest sovereign-wealth funds. However, the slice for China biotech company seems very small. One way to get a larger slice would be for the China biotech companies to bring jobs to Middle East, based on an investor who just visited Middle East recently.
2023-07-06 Stifel Healthcare team published 1H2023 Market Review. This 100+ pages report provides torrents of data to depict the current capital market of healthcare, which feels sobering for now but highly optimistic in the future.
One highlight to cheer the stressed biotech up: in addition to $93 billion worth of M&A deals that have been announced in 1H2023, the top 20 pharma companies may still have $655 billion of comfortable or ~$1.3 trillion stretched M&A firepower for M&A, an extraordinary strong balance sheet!
2023-07-06 GSK's ViiV Healthcare is considering using an external control to study long-acting HIV drug Cabenuva in patients who aren't virologically suppressed by daily oral meds because of adherence challenges, Fierce Pharma reports. The FDA has in the past granted several approvals based on external controls, mostly in rare diseases. In this case, ViiV's R&D chief Dr. Kimberly Smith argued that randomizing patients who are known to have adherence issues to oral drugs doesn’t make sense and could be dangerous. (contributed by Angus Liu)
2023-07-06 The clear leading position of Eli Lilly in obesity and diabetes lifts their stock to a whopping ~45x PE (price-to-earning ratio), higher than the PEs of Microsoft, Apple, and Google. STAT News published a behind-the-scenes business story that features David Ricks, CEO and Daniel Skovronsky, CSO of Eli Lilly.
2023-07-05 Moderna strikes a deal worth up to $1 billion to develop, produce mRNA drugs in China, reported by Fierce Pharma. An interesting twist of this deal is that "any medicines produced under this agreement will be exclusively for the Chinese people" according to Moderna's statement.
2023-07-03 Blue View (深蓝观), a leading healthcare newspaper in China, published an interesting commentary titled “跨国药企在华的新玩法” to review 20+ years' history of how MNCs have been continuously evolving in response to the ever-changing market and geopolitical conditions in China. This article includes some views from our own Leon Tang.
2023-07-03 AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo shares fall after lung cancer drug underwhelms in trial. Although TROP-2 ADC datopotamab deruxtecan phase 3 TROPION-Lung01 trial met PFS endpoint, it has not met the co-primary endpoint of overall survival. What really spooked investor was some reported deaths, to which the company did not provide more details. Once believed to be a clear best-in-class drug in the TROP-2 ADC space, these preliminary data cast some doubt.
2023-06-29 BioMarin recently completed a yearslong marathon to win FDA approval for hemophilia A gene therapy Roctavian. Analysts expect that the therapy can eventually reach blockbuster status, but a team at Leerink Partners predicted a slow sales ramp initially, Fierce Pharma reports. Unlike previous gene therapy approvals, hemophilia A has many other effective treatments. Patients on Roche's Hemlibra are less likely to switch, a recent Leerink survey of 18 U.S. doctors found. Still, the polled doctors generally like Roctavian's efficacy data, including its durability. (contributed by Angus Liu)
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