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August 25, 2017

Welcome to FierceLifeSci Weekly Digest, your roundup of the biggest and most popular stories from each of our publications.

Featured Story

Novartis CEO opens door to cancer patient demanding ‘fair’ CAR-T pricing

Cancer patient David Mitchell is so concerned about the potentially high price of CAR-T treatments that he requested a meeting with Joe Jimenez, CEO of Novartis, as the company works to establish a price for its upcoming product in this new class.

Top Stories Of The Week

Samsung jumps into novel drug R&D through Takeda deal

Samsung Bioepis has begun its long-anticipated move into novel drug R&D. The offshoot of South Korean conglomerate Samsung is taking its first steps beyond the lower risk, lower reward world of biosimilars by teaming up with Takeda to co-develop drugs against diseases including pancreatitis.

No big growth in 10 years for Big Pharma's workforce, but lots of restructuring

Take a look at the Big Pharma workforce 10 years ago, and on the surface, it’s remarkably similar to the present. Payrolls at the biggest drugmakers collectively amounted to 1.13 million, up from 1.06 million in 2007. Underneath those numbers, though? Some big changes as the industry sought to remake itself.

Five Prime names ex-Genentech I-O specialist research SVP

Five Prime Therapeutics has appointed Bryan Irving, Ph.D., as its SVP of research. Irving made his name in the industry in a decadelong stint at Genentech, during which he performed research that gave rise to anti-PD-L1 antibody Tecentriq.

Thank you, Ken Frazier, for a mission impossible: Making pharma look good

Merck CEO Ken Frazier's resignation from the president's manufacturing council seems to have bumped up the reputation of Frazier, Merck and the pharma industry at a time when pharma's reputation in general is lagging.

Arcus adds WuXi Biologics-developed PD-1 drug under $816M deal

Just weeks after Celgene got a PD-1 drug from China’s BeiGene, Arcus Biosciences inked an $816 million deal to get a PD-1 candidate WuXi Biologics had developed under a contract with Chinese firm Gloria Pharmaceuticals.

FDA chief Gottlieb backs vaccines—again—to draw firm line against antivaccine activists

Make no mistake: FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb does not want to be associated with the anti-vaxxer movement. He resorted to Twitter on Monday to take a clear stand after press reports revealed a meeting between a top FDA official and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

BenevolentAI poaches drug discovery executive from GlaxoSmithKline 

BenevolentAI has hired Ian Churcher, D.Phil., from GlaxoSmithKline. The appointment of Churcher as VP of drug discovery furthers the secretive AI-enabled startup’s track record of poaching executives from Big Pharma.

Nitrogen-clearing enzyme a new target for difficult-to-treat pancreatic cancers

While pancreatic cancer is relatively rare in the U.S., it's also difficult to treat and often deadly. Researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital have discovered an approach that could suppress a tumor’s growth by altering its metabolism.

GlaxoSmithKline taking heat in its U.K. home turf over shortages of hepatitis B vaccine

GlaxoSmithKline is taking some heat at home over questions about global shortages of its and Merck’s hepatitis B vaccine that triggered rationing in the U.K., although GSK’s supplies to the much larger U.S. market seem to be unaffected.

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