The need-to-know this morning
- Roche is partnering with Nurix Therapeutics to co-develop an experimental antibody treatment that works by degrading, or eliminating, a protein called BTK that is associated with blood cancer and other diseases.
- Treeline Biosciences, the developer of early-stage cancer medicines co-founded by biotech entrepreneur Josh Bilenker, is going public via a reverse merger with Standard BioTools.
Cancer
Combination of pancreatic cancer drugs from Tango, Revolution leads to high response rate
Revolution Medicines’ experimental pancreatic cancer drug has been the star of the oncology field in recent weeks, with new data showing the medicine produced unprecedented outcomes for patients.
Its next act — this time as a co-lead — was revealed this morning.
Tango Therapeutics said that in an early-stage clinical trial, a combination of its drug vopimetostat along with Revolution’s daraxonrasib, led to durable responses in the large majority of pancreatic cancer patients who received both medicines.
Read more details from my colleague Andrew Joseph.
obesity
Novo underwhelmed by drug it once fought Pfizer for
From STAT’s Elaine Chen: Just late last year, Novo Nordisk was battling Pfizer in a fierce bidding war to acquire the obesity startup Metsera and its pipeline of monthly treatments. Now, after Pfizer — which won out with a $10 billion bid — released new data from Metsera's lead candidate, Novo executives appear much less excited about the molecule.
At the American Diabetes Association conference on Saturday, new data confirmed the drug, called berobenatide, has potential to be dosed monthly, a feature that could make it more convenient than the weekly drugs on the market. But the efficacy was less than what has been seen with drugs developed by other companies, and there were increases in vomiting and nausea when patients transitioned into monthly doses.
Martin Lange, Novo’s chief scientific officer, said in an interview, “I think people were a little bit underwhelmed at this point with the efficacy,” and also “the tolerability profile was not exactly what we had been expecting.”
When asked whether he felt relieved that Novo didn’t buy Metsera, Lange didn’t answer directly, but said that the efficacy and tolerability results for obesity candidates depend a lot on the way studies and development programs are designed and Novo has a lot of expertise in that.
CEO Mike Doustdar said in the same interview, “I would say it's not about being relieved or not.” He added that Novo offered a price that it believed Metsera was worth, and “when Pfizer went higher than our bid, it felt like this would be better in Pfizer's hand at that price than us.”
gene therapy
America can invent cures. Can it finance them?
Gene therapies can now cure condition like sickle cell disease with a single treatment, but their multimillion-dollar price tags have exposed a basic flaw in the U.S. health care system: We know how to develop cures, but not how to pay for them, opines William Padula, a USC researcher focusing on health economics.
Although policymakers are experimenting with payment models based on outcomes, and have multistate purchasing agreements, the core problems remain. Insurers and Medicaid programs operate on annual budgets, while gene therapies offer value over decades. And simply lowering prices isn't a panacea, since these treatments are complex and require specialized manufacturing and clinical expertise.
“Without a financing model that matches their value, those cures will remain out of reach for many patients,” Padula writes. “The next step is not just scientific innovation, but building a system that can finance and deliver cures at scale.”
Read more.
