September 19, 2019 - Fierce Pharma
With momentum building in Pfizer’s gene therapy programs, the drugmaker is laying the foundation for stepped-up manufacturing of clinical supplies and commercial-scale product. In its latest move, Pfizer has bought land and a finished building in North Carolina where it will consolidate its clinical gene therapy production. Pfizer paid about $19 million for the land and building near the intersection of I-40 and I-540 in Durham, North Carolina.
September 18, 2019 - Fierce Biotech
About 10 months after first announcing the move, Google has finally subsumed the healthcare-focused efforts of U.K.-based artificial intelligence firm DeepMind—and with them, its data-sharing partnerships with multiple National Health Service (NHS) hospitals.
First made public in November 2018, the plan was to transfer personnel from DeepMind—which already serves underneath the umbrella of Google’s parent, Alphabet—over to the tech giant’s health team, along with oversight of its Streams mobile app developed for doctors and nurses.
The handover was announced days after Google’s health team
brought on
former Geisinger President and CEO David Feinberg to consolidate the company’s various healthcare-related enterprises under a single strategy and banner.
September 18, 2019 - Fierce Pharma
AstraZeneca has made no secret of its ambitions in China. In another doubling-down move there, the British drugmaker inked a deal with its former China head and snapped up full Chinese rights to Ironwood Pharmaceuticals’ irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) treatment Linzess.
In revamping the companies' 2012 marketing pact, AstraZeneca gained sole responsibility for developing, manufacturing and selling Linzess in China. Rather than sharing profits or sales with Ironwood, it will pay the smaller company $35 million in three installments between 2021 and 2024 plus royalties and up to $90 million in sales-related milestones.
September 17, 2019 - Fierce Pharma
Roche’s trio of legacy cancer megablockbusters face an unclear path forward as biosimilars hit or near the U.S. market. By the drugmaker’s own math, Herceptin, Avastin and Rituxan will indeed leave a big dent in its sales—an almost $10 billion dent, in fact.
But Roche execs have said growth from newer drugs will be more than enough to fill that hole, and Monday, they offered up some numbers to illustrate the point.
September 16, 2019 - BioPharma Dive
Purdue Pharma is filing for bankruptcy to help finance a pending settlement over the role it played in the U.S. opioid epidemic. On Sunday, the company said an agreement in principle worth more than $10 billion had been reached with 24 state attorneys general and similar officials from five U.S. territories. The agreement would put all of Purdue's assets into a trust and have its founders, the Sackler family, contribute at least $3 billion. Other state attorneys general may hold out for a different proposal. The settlement would also create an as yet unnamed new company that could provide "tens of millions of doses of opioid overdose reversal and addiction treatment medications at no or low cost." The company wouldn't be allowed to market or sell opioids, and would be run by a new board selected by claimants and approved by the bankruptcy court.
