AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP
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Pfizer, Merck, AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb were among the many biopharmas showing off novel cancer modalities at ESMO, with antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies and kinase inhibitors demonstrating encouraging efficacy and safety for various cancers.
After beating Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide last month, Lilly’s much anticipated oral candidate orforglipron has taken down AstraZeneca’s Farxiga in a head-to-head trial.
The British pharmaceutical giant has joined the direct-to-consumer push, following Pfizer and Amgen’s announcements in response to the president’s calls to lower U.S. drug prices.
AstraZeneca has invested heavily in AI, primarily through collaborations, including an up to $5.3 billion partnership with China’s CSPC Pharmaceutical in June.
Talks between pharma and successive U.K. governments have failed to deliver the market access terms that the industry wants, contributing to a pullback in investment.
The White House is clamping down on pharma’s ability to buy new molecules from Chinese biotechs; Sanofi, Merck and others abandon the U.K. after the introduction of a sizeable levy; Novo CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar lays off 9,000 while the company presents new data at EASD; Capsida loses a patient in a gene therapy trial; and CDER Director George Tidmarsh walks back comments on FDA adcomms.
AstraZeneca in January also stopped its $610 million plans to construct a vaccine R&D and manufacturing site in the U.K.
With a flurry of recent Big Pharma investment in radiopharmaceutical therapeutics, the FDA issued draft guidance last month in a move former FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn sees as the regulator “trying to get ahead on a new set of therapy that they see becoming very important for cancer.”
The Department of Health and Human Services is terminating around $500 million in BARDA contracts associated with mRNA vaccine development, a move that will affect several pharma companies, including Moderna, Pfizer, Sanofi and AstraZeneca.
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