Immunology and inflammation
With zasocitinib, Takeda is looking to challenge Bristol Myers Squibb’s kinase inhibitor Sotyktu, for which the Japanese pharma is running a head-to-head study in plaque psoriasis. Takeda expects to file for zasocitinib’s FDA approval next year.
The FDA rejected the use of Exdensur, however, for chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps.
For $950 million upfront, Sobi will gain ownership to pozdeutinurad, an oral URAT1 inhibitor that performed well in Phase II studies.
Coming up in the back half of December, the FDA will issue a verdict on Vanda Pharmaceuticals’ gastroparesis drug tradipitant, which it rejected last September, triggering a very public dispute with the company.
At the heart of the deal is Relation’s Lab-in-the-Loop platform, which uses AI models to improve understanding of diseases and guide clinical development programs.
The FDA’s docket in December includes decisions for two big biologic franchises: BMS’s Breyanzi and Amgen’s Uplizna.
With immunology and inflammation blockbusters like AbbVie’s Skyrizi and Rinvoq reeling in nearly $7 billion combined in the third quarter, the pipeline-in-a-product strategy has never been more attractive.
Pfizer seals the deal with Metsera for $10 billion after Novo Nordisk bowed out; President Donald Trump welcomes executives from Novo and Eli Lilly to the White House to announce that the companies’ GLP-1 medicines would be sold at a reduced cost; and the FDA grants the second round of priority review vouchers—primarily to already marketed drugs.
At the center of the licensing deal is an NLRP3 inhibitor that has shown “encouraging efficacy in acute inflammation models,” according to TransThera, indicating its potential in various metabolic and inflammatory diseases.
Skyrizi and Rinvoq made nearly $7 billion combined, almost half of the company’s income for the quarter alone.
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