Pricing bill to hit Novo, Gilead, BMS, AZ hardest

Today's Big News

Sep 26, 2022

While the healthcare industry continues to grapple with a lack of racial and gender diversity at its highest levels of leadership, Fierce Healthcare aims to shine a spotlight on some of the critical contributions made by people of color across health systems, physicians' offices, health tech, research and insurance, with its list of the 10 most influential minority executives for 2022.

A lot has changed since Fierce Pharma last ranked the most productive biopharma companies in 2016—a worldwide pandemic on one hand, and some megamergers in the other. But overall its list has shown improvements, with nine out of the top 10 logging more than $1 million in revenue per employee, compared with only four companies clearing that bar five years ago.

T-cell engagers remain a hot therapeutic target for Big Pharma, and now Seagen is the latest to want in on the action. The company has inked a deal worth up to $700 million with LavaTherapeutics. - Conor Hale

 

Featured

Fierce Healthcare's most influential minority executives in healthcare for 2022

We are honoring leaders who have made a measurable impact on healthcare in the past year and have a demonstrated track record in paving the way forward for others. These leaders have shown examples of innovation, passion and ingenuity.
 

Top Stories

The top 10 most productive biopharma companies

A lot has changed since we last ranked the most productive biopharma companies with numbers from 2016. Two firms lost their status as standalone companies while boosting their acquirers' positions. This year's ranking also unsurprisingly includes COVID-19 superstars and a couple Big Biotechs.

Lava looks hot to Seagen as pharma pays $50M for preclinical T-cell engager for cancer

T-cell engagers remain a hot therapy area for Lava Therapeutics and now Seagen is the latest big pharma that wants in on the action.

Smith+Nephew brings robotic assistant to knee replacement revision procedures

Smith+Nephew announced that it conducted its first robotically guided revision procedures in patients who have undergone total knee replacements, using its Cori surgical system.

Novo Nordisk, Gilead, BMS and AstraZeneca will feel the most pain from Biden's pricing bill: analysts

Several measures in the newly signed Inflation Reduction Act will target drug prices. While analysts at Morningstar figure that overall biopharma revenues will take a 2% hit, some companies will be affected more than others. Those more negatively impacted will be Novo Nordisk, Gilead, Bristol Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca and AbbVie. Others such as Pfizer, Merck, Roche and Novartis will not be nearly as exposed, Morningstar says.

New data offer glimpse at potential impact of emerging COVID variants

Data from two preprint studies offer some inkling of what challenges the latest COVID-19 variant brings.

Burned by EU backtrack, Valneva flags talks with potential partner for next-gen COVID-19 shot

European countries' decisions to backtrack on their large orders of Valneva’s COVID-19 vaccine appeared to have sunk the company’s hopes of developing a successor shot. But the French biotech is now teasing that it is in partnering talks it hopes will give it the financial security it needs to pursue this ambition.

Seer Medical scopes out FDA nod for at-home epilepsy monitoring system

It doesn’t take a soothsayer to see what’s on the horizon for Seer Medical.

Daiichi Sankyo bags an industry first with Japanese nod for blood cancer drug Ezharmia

While Daiichi Sankyo has been focusing on a stable of antibody-drug conjugates, the Japanese company has won a global first in a blood cancer area that Pfizer is also targeting.

Hospital and health systems' dire finances are spurring layoffs—here are 23 examples from 2022

Despite an industrywide labor shortage, provider organizations say rising expenses and pandemic disruptions are to blame for service cuts, shutdowns and layoffs.

Activist investor snaps Mereo's olive branch as proxy feud looms

Mereo BioPharma’s attempt to appease Rubric Capital Management has failed, with the activist investor rejecting an offer to gain a seat on the board and continuing to push for bigger changes to the biotech.

MIT ‘human radar’ device tracks movement, gait speed of Parkinson’s patients at home

Radar technology is used to track vehicles, measure driving speeds, forecast weather changes and, now, to remotely monitor the severity and progression of Parkinson’s disease.

In patent fight versus Pfizer generic, Astellas gets good news and bad

Astellas got good news and bad in its attempt to keep Pfizer's Hospira from launching its generic version of Lexiscan. While the court granted Astellas an interim injunction which prevents Hospira from launching its copycat until Oct. 5, it also rejected the company’s bid to prevent the launch until the case works its way through U.S. appeals court.
 
Fierce podcasts

Don't miss an episode

'The Top Line': How some Big Pharmas are bolstering their environmental sustainability efforts, the most expensive drug and more

This week on "The Top Line," we'll discuss how two Big Pharma companies, GSK and Takeda, made moves this week to bolster their environmental sustainability efforts. We'll discuss their strategies and what we can expect for the future.
 

Resources

eBook

Make the most out of hybrid conferences

Improve your congress competitive intelligence and cut down costs by 50%

Executive Summary

Leading lab instruments provider saves $2M a year

How a new app brings the power of CRM to a leading lab instruments provider’s field service engineers

Whitepaper

Achieving faster formulation for First In Human supplies

Supporting your product development programme through experience, expertise, and efficiency.

Whitepaper

The Hands-Free, Low-Volume, Microfluidic Elisa Alternative

Advanced research requires advanced tools. The next-generation ELISA takes a fraction of the time to run eight analytes simultaneously while saving your sample volume.

eBook

Optimize Digital Engagement Across the Patient Journey

Improve patient engagement, adherence, and outcomes
Video

Improve Life Sciences Research with AI Workflow Automation

Can an optimized research process--including AI-powered workflow and process automation tools--help get breakthrough drugs to market faster?
Video

Building a Broader Tissue Research Ecosystem

Learn how a centralized platform for pathology images, metadata, and analysis results can connect previously siloed research initiatives and advance our collective understanding of tissue.
Whitepaper

The Most Suitable Dosage Form Technologies for the Oral Delivery of Lipid-Based Formulations

What is the most suitable dosage form technology for the Oral Delivery of Lipid-Based Formulations?
Research

Versatility of Softgel Technology - Encapsulation of a Volatile Compound

Learn more about how the versatility of Softgel Technology helped a customer with a volatile compound.
Whitepaper

Lipid-Based Drug Delivery System to Bring Poorly Soluble Drugs to Market

How can Lipid-Based Drug Delivery System help bring poorly soluble drugs to market?
Whitepaper

Formulation Strategies When Transitioning From Vial to PFS

Learn how formulation development for a PFS affects manufacturing to drive the industry toward optimizing delivery of injectable products and, ultimately, improving patient care.

Webinar

The Faster Path From Pre-Filled Syringe to Auto-Injector

Ypsomed and Catalent Biologics experts discuss strategies for integrated PFS manufacturing and auto-injector assembly to accelerate timelines and more in this webinar.
Whitepaper

An Assay Platform to Evaluate Cytokine Release & T Cell Activation

How can we predict the ability of a preclinical drug to inadvertently cause or intentionally inhibit cytokine secretion and T cell activation

Whitepaper

Expanding Healthcare Services with Digital Agreement Technology

Read our whitepaper and dive into the way healthcare providers can digitally transform day-to-day work by streamlining costs and increasing agility by removing manual paper burdens.

Research

Revealing better ways to do business with agile analytics

Learn how a private health insurance company uses analytics to deliver exceptional service to its employees and members

Custom Resource Center

Discover resources to support growth and innovation

Read through this library of resources to find out how you can strengthen innovation and efficiency, improve safety and quality, and prioritize resources to support your long-term goals.

Whitepaper

Softgel Formulation Enables Oral Delivery of Testosterone

Clarus Therapeutics (Clarus) is a men’s specialty pharmaceutical company that partnered with Catalent to develop a unique and convenient drug delivery form for their hormone replacement therapy.

Whitepaper

Strategies for the Optimal Scale-up & Tech Transfer of Oral Small Molecules

Learn more about how the transition from early to late phase of a small molecule program plays a pivotal role in a program’s ultimate success.

Whitepaper

Medical Affairs Metamorphosis, Part III: How Medical Affairs is Becoming a Key Hub for Evidence Generation

This paper explores how Medical Affairs is increasingly playing a key leadership role in evidence planning and generation (part 3 in a series).

Whitepaper

Plan for scalable process liquid and buffer preparation

Explore how Thermo Scientific’s Process Liquid Preparation Services can help you plan for scalable buffer preparation.

Research

Reduce control arm sizes by up to 22% for HD & ALS RCTs

TwinRCTs require fewer patients and shorten trial timelines for rare neurodegenerative diseases.

eBook

Orally Inhaled & Nasal Drug Delivery: A Pipeline of Opportunities

Orally Inhaled & Nasal Drug Delivery: A Pipeline of Opportunities

Whitepaper

Catalent Pulmonary & Nasal Delivery Capabilities Sheet

Did you know Catalent has newly expanded in-house capabilities spanning clinical and commercial scale manufacturing for DPIs, unit-dose, bi-dose and preserved multi-dose nasal sprays?

Whitepaper

Intranasal Drug Product Development: Formulation to Manufacturing

What are key considerations for intranasal delivery in the treatment of acute and chronic conditions?

 

Industry Events