Gene therapy
Pfizer’s sudden market withdrawal of sickle cell therapy Oxbryta, which some analysts predicted would reach $750 million in sales by the end of the decade, has left patients and healthcare providers with few options, while investors question the pharma giant’s dealmaking prowess.
4D Molecular Therapeutics reported its experimental gene therapy demonstrated a nearly 90% reduction in the need for annualized standard-of-care injections in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration.
Last month, Vertex said sickle cell patients had not yet received infusions of its gene therapy Casgevy. That’s now changed, as the company races with bluebird bio’s Lyfgenia.
As it nears a crucial FDA action date for its transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy candidate, BridgeBio focuses on its late-stage pipeline.
No patients have received Casgevy, CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmeceuticals’ recently approved sickle cell gene therapy. Experts weigh in on the path to profit for the treatment and the therapeutic class in general.
BioMarin executives sought to calm an anxious investor base Wednesday with a public address and pledge to achieve a nearly 50% bump in annual revenue by 2027. But analysts were left wanting.
Eli Lilly offers weight loss drug Zepbound directly to consumers while Novo Nordisk continues to struggle with supply challenges for its own GLP-1s. Meanwhile, gene therapies for retinal diseases target competitive market, and layoffs persist.
The intellectual property landscape for newer gene-editing technologies, like that for CRISPR-Cas9, remains unclear and hard to navigate.
With promising early results, cell and gene therapies are making headway against both rare and common ocular and auditory diseases.
With gene therapies by REGENXBIO and AbbVie, Adverum and others in mid- or late-stage trials, this therapeutic class could soon be an option for this common cause of blindness in the elderly.
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