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In the wake of Pfizer’s voluntary market withdrawal of the popular sickle cell disease therapy, BioSpace looks at five investigational drugs currently making their way through the pipeline.
This week marked the start of the third-quarter earnings season, with Johnson & Johnson exceeding Wall Street’s expectations. Pfizer is projected to have a strong quarter, while Eli Lilly could pull ahead of Novo Nordisk in the obesity space. Moderna, by contrast, has a decidedly negative outlook.
Merck’s investigational antibody clesrovimab demonstrated more than 60% effectiveness in reducing some types of respiratory syncytial virus-associated infections in infants, while Pfizer’s RSV vaccine Abrysvo showed 90% effectiveness at preventing the most severe RSV cases in adults 60 years and older.
Opdivo showed a 52% progression-free survival advantage over Adcetris in newly diagnosed Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to a Phase III study that combined either therapy with doxorubicin, vinblastine and dacarbazine.
Sanofi looks to follow a deep history of Big Pharma offloading their consumer healthcare businesses.
The approval makes Pfizer’s Hympavzi the first once-weekly subcutaneous prophylactic injection for hemophilia B in the U.S., according to the company, which is currently embroiled in a row with activist investor Starboard Value.
Since its inception in 1992, the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway has helped shepherd nearly 300 new drugs to the market. However, recent years have seen a number of high-profile market withdrawals and failed confirmatory trials.
The overall survival data from the late-stage trial will help Pfizer in its bid to expand the label for Talzenna and Xtandi, potentially covering all patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer regardless of biomarker status.
Large pharmaceutical companies were out in force at this week’s 2024 Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mesa, as they look to expand their presence in the industry.
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