Plus transactions involving Nissan Chemical/Sanwa Kagaku, Memel/Therabest, Chugai/Alnylam, Takeda/Kumquat, Nxera/Handok, 3SBio/CStone and deals in brief.

After the volatility of pandemic-related sales, investor and analyst attention turned to pharma’s core businesses. With exclusivity losses weighing on those large components of pharma, Sanofi’s reclassification may bring some unwelcome attention.

Pipeline Watch is a weekly snapshot of selected late-stage clinical trial events and approvals announced by pharmaceutical and biotech companies at medical and industry conferences, in financial and company presentations, and in company releases and statements.

Emerging Company Profile: The eight-year-old vaccine firm is planning clinical trials in the Philippines and Brazil to see how its synthetic viral peptide vaccine technology stands up against coronaviruses and dengue fever.

Aiming to help create China’s first original treatment for under-researched rare diseases, the Hope for Rare Foundation is racing against a funding crunch to support translational research in China, its co-founder and secretary-general tells Scrip in an interview.

Zenas BioPharma plans to have data from four trials – two under way and two starting this summer – for obexelimab, which targets CD19 and FcγRIIb, within about a year and a half.

The attraction of listing in the US for innovative companies is clear but the heads of the Swiss Biotech Association tell Scrip that start-ups should remember the advantages of playing at home and not waste too much energy and time on worrying about being on the NASDAQ.

In this video interview, Sharon Chan, vice-president, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS Asia Pacific, shares her views on what South Korea’s strengths are as a biotech and medtech R&D hub, JLABS's plans in the country and what role it wants for its local activities domestically and beyond.

Indian firms accounted for over 50% of prescription volumes in five of the top 10 therapy areas in the US in 2022, as also 15% of the volume share of biosimilars, delivering savings and widening patient coverage a study by IQVIA said, while also highlighting supply chain risks that need attention.

Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty toppled after recording the highest ever annual sales for a pharmaceutical in 2022, while Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic climbed rapidly. But Merck & Co’s immuno-oncology blockbuster Keytruda was secure in the number one spot in 2023 as COVID-19 receded.

The highs of the COVID-19 era, and the lows that supplanted it, are beginning to fade.

A year is a long time in biopharma. Pharmaprojects’ annual pipeline review finds changes in the therapeutic spread of drug candidates and a reordering of the top R&D companies, as Chinese firms made their presence felt all the more over the past 12 months.

Indian firms accounted for over 50% of prescription volumes in five of the top 10 therapy areas in the US in 2022, as also 15% of the volume share of biosimilars, delivering savings and widening patient coverage a study by IQVIA said, while also highlighting supply chain risks that need attention.

As Astellas pivots through several candidates in an attempt to create its next blockbuster, a decision to terminate its only prospect in the core mitochondrial R&D area leaves very few other competitors in the market.

The ranks of B7-H3-targeting antibody-drug conjugates under development in China have seen their first dropout, although elsewhere there are two FGFR2b-directed ADCs with first-in-class potential on the horizon. Meanwhile, there have been other discontinuations of KRAS G12C inhibitors and anti-BCMA CAR-T cell therapies in the country, while new players have surfaced in the areas of mRNA cancer vaccines and amyloid-beta-targeting antibodies for Alzheimer’s disease.

Plus transactions involving Nissan Chemical/Sanwa Kagaku, Memel/Therabest, Chugai/Alnylam, Takeda/Kumquat, Nxera/Handok, 3SBio/CStone and deals in brief.

Aiming to help create China’s first original treatment for under-researched rare diseases, the Hope for Rare Foundation is racing against a funding crunch to support translational research in China, its co-founder and secretary-general tells Scrip in an interview.

IQVIA’s latest usage and spending trends report forecasts US obesity market will grow to $35bn by 2028, while the two leading GLP-1 agonists have already posted eye-popping sales growth.

The company initiated a rolling NDA submission for suzetrigine for acute pain, positioning the drug for a launch in 2025.

Zenas BioPharma plans to have data from four trials – two under way and two starting this summer – for obexelimab, which targets CD19 and FcγRIIb, within about a year and a half.

As COVID-19 vaccine sales decline, the company is investing billions in a diverse oncology pipeline including antibody drug conjugates, immunotherapy and cancer vaccines

The Sweden-headquartered biotech has emphasized the promising survival data in a head and neck cancer study of setanaxib rather than the NOX inhibitor’s inability to shrink tumors.

After the volatility of pandemic-related sales, investor and analyst attention turned to pharma’s core businesses. With exclusivity losses weighing on those large components of pharma, Sanofi’s reclassification may bring some unwelcome attention.