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This Week

Oct 20, 2023

With COVID sales in free-fall, Pfizer slashes revenue forecast by $9B and preps for major cost cuts


Roche's BTK inhibitor may have reached 'holy grail' of brain penetration in phase 2 MS trial


Merck’s Keytruda wins coveted FDA nod around surgery for early lung cancer—with a surprise


As 'harvest time' arrives for Alzheimer's, neuroscientist reflects on next steps for drug development


Pfizer takes aim at BMS' first-in-class Zeposia with FDA nod for ulcerative colitis drug Velsipity


Biopharmas like to bet big on M&A earnouts. Do they ever hit the biobuck jackpot?

 

Featured

With COVID sales in free-fall, Pfizer slashes revenue forecast by $9B and preps for major cost cuts

Pfizer has slashed its 2023 revenue projection by $9 billion because of declining demand for COVID products. The company now expects sales to reach between $58 billion and $61 billion, down from a prior range of $67 billion to $70 billion. Pfizer chalked up most of the decline to a $7 billion decrease in its projection for sales of oral antiviral Paxlovid. The company has also cut its forecast for sales of COVID vaccine Comirnaty by $2 billion.
 

Top Stories

Roche's BTK inhibitor may have reached 'holy grail' of brain penetration in phase 2 MS trial

Roche has claimed the latest phase 2 readout for its multiple sclerosis drug backs up the BTK inhibitor’s "best in disease" potential by achieving the "holy grail" in biopharma: crossing the blood-brain barrier.

Merck’s Keytruda wins coveted FDA nod around surgery for early lung cancer—with a surprise

Thanks to a new FDA approval for Merck's Keytruda, a continuous immunotherapy regimen around surgery is now available for patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. The drug's label already includes an overall survival win from a key trial.

As 'harvest time' arrives for Alzheimer's, neuroscientist reflects on next steps for drug development

Howard Fillit, M.D., remembers a time when doctors didn’t have a name for the condition that robbed elderly patients of their memory. He’s a geriatrician and neuroscientist, but also the co-founder and chief science officer for the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.

Pfizer takes aim at BMS' first-in-class Zeposia with FDA nod for ulcerative colitis drug Velsipity

Bristol Myers Squibb’s Zeposia is no longer the only S1P receptor modulator on the market for ulcerative colitis, thanks to an FDA approval for what appears to be a more effective drug from Pfizer.

Biopharmas like to bet big on M&A earnouts. Do they ever hit the biobuck jackpot?

Biopharmas love to break the news of an M&A deal with a splashy number. Commercial milestones can represent as much as 40% of the so-called earnout potential for a deal—adding up to about $25 billion in potential. But how much of that is actually paid out in the end?

J&J to ditch 'less-profitable' orthopedics markets in 2-year restructuring

Johnson & Johnson MedTech expects to take a $250 million revenue hit before 2026 as it restructures its orthopedics businesses and exits low-performing markets.

As Adderall shortage enters 2nd year, lawmakers press FDA and DEA for update

On the 1-year anniversary of the official start of the U.S. Adderall shortage, lawmakers inked a letter urging the FDA and DEA for an update detailing the progress the agencies have made in addressing the issue.

Merck KGaA starts awareness push to help docs unravel form of MS, opening new front in Sanofi fight

Merck KGaA is laying the groundwork for its closely watched multiple sclerosis drug candidate. With phase 3 data imminent, the German drugmaker has begun an awareness campaign to inform physicians about a form of the neurological disease that its treatment may be able to address.

Probiotics punch up CAR-T therapy for solid tumors in mice

Probiotics could be the key to making universal chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapies work for solid tumors, new research has suggested.
 
Fierce podcasts

Don’t miss an episode

‘Podnosis’: A look at Humana’s expansion into senior-focused primary care

In this week’s episode of “Podnosis,” we delve into how Humana is expanding its reach in senior-focused primary care and home health. Fierce Payer Senior Editor Paige Minemyer caught up with Sanjay Shetty, M.D., president of Humana’s CenterWell segment, to explore why the insurer is placing its bets on primary care and the strategies the company intends to use to achieve its growth ambitions. 
 

Resources

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Creating a State-of-the-Art Integrated Digital Library Ecosystem

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Ensuring a Reliable Biopharmaceutical Supply in the EU

Economic and regulatory factors are making biopharma supply chains more complex in the EU. This paper explores strategies that biopharma companies can use to better manage complexity, cost, and risk.
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Biology Informatics Solutions Brochure

From Assay Development Through Large Molecule Development. Streamline your R&D workflows and gain valuable insights with our Biology Solutions Brochure. Download now to discover how to control your laboratory workflows across various assay techniques, modalities, and data types.
 

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