Merck opens ‘reimagined’ headquarters

This Week

Jun 23, 2023

With new lawsuits, Novo Nordisk aims to crack down on compounded versions of Ozempic, Wegovy 


Lilly makes fresh bet on IL-17 with $2.4B acquisition of Dice Therapeutics 


It's 'a concern': Bavarian Nordic flags worrying COVID-19 vaccine result ahead of phase 3 data drop 


Merck consolidates New Jersey operations at 'reimagined' headquarters in Rahway 


Siemens Healthineers lays off 67 New Jersey workers amid diagnostics cuts 


'The Top Line': The most expensive drugs in the US, plus this week's headlines

 

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With new lawsuits, Novo Nordisk aims to crack down on compounded versions of Ozempic, Wegovy

Novo Nordisk filed five lawsuits in four states on Tuesday, charging health spas, clinics and pharmacies with false advertising, trademark infringement and unlawful sales of compounded versions of diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. Novo also is planning action against other unlawful sellers, the company said.
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July 18-19, 2023 | Jersey City, NJ
 

Top Stories

Lilly makes fresh bet on IL-17 with $2.4B acquisition of Dice Therapeutics

Eli Lilly has taken a high-stakes gamble on oral IL-17 inhibitors, betting $2.4 billion upfront that acquiring Dice Therapeutics will expand its autoimmune arsenal.

It's 'a concern': Bavarian Nordic flags worrying COVID-19 vaccine result ahead of phase 3 data drop

Bavarian Nordic has identified a “concern” with its investigational COVID-19 vaccine. With phase 3 data imminent, the Danish drugmaker has reported weakened immune responses against the omicron variant XBB.1.1 in a midstage study.

Merck consolidates New Jersey operations at 'reimagined' headquarters in Rahway

Merck is back home again in Rahway, New Jersey, at the site that it established 90 years ago as Merck Research Laboratories. After being headquartered for eight years, seven miles to the north in Kenilworth, and before that, for 23 years in Whitehouse Station, 35 miles to the west, Merck has returned to its “reimagined” Rahway facility.

Siemens Healthineers lays off 67 New Jersey workers amid diagnostics cuts

As 2022 drew to a close, Siemens Healthineers announced that it would be embarking on a yearslong cost-cutting campaign within its diagnostics division that would include swaths of layoffs and a slimmed-down product portfolio. The medtech giant still hasn’t disclosed the total number of positions that will be affected by the layoffs, but several dozen are now on the chopping block in New Jersey.

'The Top Line': The most expensive drugs in the US, plus this week's headlines

This week on "The Top Line," we discuss the most expensive drugs in the U.S., plus Eli Lilly's recent acquisition, the latest company to challenge the Inflation Reduction Act, and the rest of the week's headlines.

Eli Lilly's Mounjaro is primed to overtake Novo Nordisk's popular diabetes and obesity duo: report

In the battle for diabetes and obesity superiority, Novo Nordisk holds a head start as the original developer of the metabolism-regulating treatment semaglutide. But Eli Lilly is quickly gaining ground and is primed to become the market leader with its GLP-1 treatment Mounjaro, according to GlobalData.

Another of Mersana's ADCs slapped with FDA hold, this time over bleeding events that include 5 deaths

Mersana Therapeutics' lead antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) has had the clamps put down by the FDA over bleeding events in patients that have included five fatalities.

Coherus breached Humira patent settlement by striking deal with Mark Cuban's drug firm, AbbVie contends

An announcement early this month by Mark Cuban’s deep discount drug company that it would sell Coherus Biosciences’ biosimilar version of AbbVie’s Humira has the Illinois drugmaker calling foul. In a regulatory filing, AbbVie claims that Coherus has violated a licensing agreement, which governs the commercializing of the biosimilar.

Game on, AbbVie. Roche's Columvi nabs FDA nod as 2nd bispecific for large B-cell lymphoma

Less than a month after AbbVie and Genmab won FDA approval for Epkinly, Roche has crossed the finish line with its bispecific answer to large B-cell lymphoma, though with a narrower label.

Cancer drug from Pfizer appears to stop aneurysm growth, opening door to nonsurgical treatment

Brain aneurysms at risk of rupture can only be treated with surgery, and that may not be possible if the aneurysm is in a hard-to-access location. But a new study hints at another solution: the cancer drug sunitinib, commercialized by Pfizer as Sutent, which appears to prevent aneurysms in mice.

FDA puts Gilead's $225M BCMA CAR-T on hold over patient death, delaying potential rival to J&J, BMS

Gilead Sciences' $225 million bet on Arcellx’s CAR-T cell therapy has hit turbulence. Months after Arcellx closed the deal, the FDA has put a pivotal trial of the anti-BCMA therapy on hold in response to the death of a patient.

Merck's Keytruda aims for updated stomach cancer label with positive data

After scoring accelerated approval to treat HER2-positive stomach cancer in 2021, the drug has now shown it can stave off tumor progression in patients with PD-L1 positive tumors.

Bristol Myers follows Merck's lead with its own ⁠lawsuit blasting IRA's Medicare negotiations

After Merck took the first legal stab at the Inflation Reduction Act with a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Bristol Myers Squibb is the latest drugmaker to allege Constitutional violations.

AstraZeneca drops another GLP-1 after phase 1 data bust market-beating diabetes hopes

Two months after dropping one of its GLP-1 agonists, AstraZeneca has decided to scrap its remaining clinical candidate. A preliminary analysis of the phase 1 data convinced the company that the drug would not outperform the competition.
 
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'The Top Line': News from ASCO's annual meeting, plus this week's headlines

This week on "The Top Line," we discuss the the top news from this year's annual ASCO meeting, plus contesting the Inflation Reduction Act, an ADHD video game, and the rest of the week's headlines.
 

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