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Shares of weight-loss drug makers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly fell on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump said that the price of Novo's popular Ozempic treatment would be lowered. Although Ozempic is approved to treat diabetes, it shares the same active ingredient - semaglutide - as the Danish drugmaker's blockbuster obesity treatment Wegovy. In the United States, Ozempic has been frequently used as a so-called off-label treatment for obesity and often served as a generic reference to weight-loss drugs. Since taking office in January, Trump has been striving to narrow the gap between U.S. and foreign drug prices. Under its "most favored nation" policy, the U.S. government will require drugmakers to charge patients in the U.S. no more than in other wealthy nations. INVESTORS BRACED FOR PRICE CUTS Novo's shares fell to a near three-week low of 342.3 crowns and were last down 6% at 344.7 crowns. Shares in rivals dropped as well, with Eli Lilly down 4% and Zealand Pharma down 5%. In U.S. pre-market trading, Viking Therapeutics was down nearly 6%, and Altimmune down 1%. BMO Capital markets analyst Evan Seigerman said that the market reaction to Trump's comments seemed exaggerated. Trump's made the comments during a White House event on Thursday,...

Medical device maker Boston Scientific said on Friday it will buy the remaining equity in privately held Nalu Medical for about $533 million in cash, expanding its portfolio of treatments for chronic pain. Boston Scientific has been a strategic investor in Carlsbad, California-based Nalu Medical since 2017, supporting its development of neurostimulation technologies for chronic pain. The deal gives Boston Scientific access to Nalu's neurostimulation device, designed to deliver targeted relief to adults living with chronic pain in areas such as the shoulder, lower back and knee, through peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS). PNS is used primarily to treat chronic pain that has not responded well to other treatments, like medication or physical therapy. The therapy uses mild electrical impulses to interrupt pain signals before they reach the brain and features a miniaturized, battery-free implantable pulse generator, powered wirelessly by a small, externally worn therapy disc and controlled via a smartphone app. Nalu's device received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's clearance in 2019. In a late-stage trial, 79% of the patients using the system reached an average pain relief of 64% at six months. Nalu's "Medical technology complements our existing therapies — including spinal cord stimulation, basivertebral nerve ablation and radiofrequency ablation — enabling us...

Roche (ROG.S), opens new tab on Thursday launched direct-to-consumer U.S. sales of its influenza antiviral pill Xofluza at a discounted cash price of $50, following similar moves by rivals as they scramble to address pressure from the Trump administration to lower prescription drug prices paid by Americans. The Xofluza cash price, offered by Roche's U.S. biotech unit Genentech at 70% below list price, will be available to insured and uninsured patients from Alto Pharmacy and Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company. Same-day delivery will be available via Alto Pharmacy. Major U.S. pharmacy chains like CVS (CVS.N), opens new tab will not be involved, Roche confirmed. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has said it plans to launch, likely early next year, a website called TrumpRx that aims to help consumers buy some medicines directly from the manufacturers. Roche said its new program will not be accessible through TrumpRx, but that it will continue to evaluate its options. Few people in the U.S. pay cash for prescription medications. Most have insurance - either commercial or federal plans like Medicare - that charge them a fixed co-pay or percentage of a drug cost. Insurers typically receive confidential discounts or rebates directly from drug...

Chinese biotech Hansoh Pharma said on Friday it had signed a licence agreement worth up to $1.45 billion with Roche for an investigational treatment of colorectal cancer and other solid tumours. Hansoh Pharma units Shanghai Hansoh Biomedical and Changzhou Hansoh Pharmaceutical will grant Roche subsidiary F. Hoffmann-La Roche an exclusive worldwide licence to develop, manufacture and commercialise the product. The licence excludes rights in the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The licensors will receive an upfront payment of $80 million and be eligible to receive up to $1.45 billion in milestone payments associated with the development, regulatory approval and commercialisation of the product, among others.

Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk and Omeros have signed a licensing deal worth up to $2.1 billion for the U.S.-based company’s experimental drug, which is being developed for rare blood and kidney disorders, they said on Wednesday. Omeros shares more than doubled to $9.90 in morning trading. As part of the agreement, Novo gains exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize Omeros’ drug zaltenibart, designed to inhibit MASP-3 — a protein that acts as a key activator of the alternative pathway of complement. The complement pathway is a system of proteins in the blood that enhances the immune system’s ability to fight infections. Omeros is eligible to receive up to a total of $2.1 billion, including $340 million upfront and near-term milestone payments. The company had said in March it began enrollment for late-stage trials studying the drug for paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), a rare blood disorder in which part of the immune system attacks and damages the red blood cells and platelets. Zaltenibart has shown several potential advantages over other alternative pathway inhibitors currently in development or on the market, the companies said. The drug was safe and well tolerated in the trials. After the deal closes, expected in the fourth quarter of 2025, Novo aims to...

U.S. biotech firm Nabla Bio said on Tuesday it has signed a second major research partnership with Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical, deepening their use of artificial intelligence to accelerate drug discovery. Under the new multi-year agreement, which builds on an earlier collaboration launched in 2022, Nabla will receive upfront and research cost payments in double-digit millions. The company is also eligible for success-based payments worth more than $1 billion. The move underscores growing momentum across the pharmaceutical industry to harness AI in drug development, with hopes of significantly reducing timelines and costs in the coming years. Nabla said it would use its proprietary AI platform, Joint Atomic Model (JAM), to design protein-based therapeutics for Takeda's early-stage pipeline. The companies will focus on hard-to-treat diseases and include multi-specific drugs and other custom biologics. Comparing to how ChatGPT answers text questions, Nabla CEO Surge Biswas said JAM responds to molecular queries by designing antibodies from scratch that bind targets with desired properties. The company claims to maintain "probably the fastest feedback loop in the industry", with a turnaround of three to four weeks from design to lab testing. "We are basically working on whatever the most pressing problems in Takeda's discovery portfolio is at any given time,...

Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday raised its 2025 sales forecast after reporting quarterly earnings that topped Wall Street expectations, and announced plans to spin off its orthopedics business into a standalone company. The healthcare conglomerate now expects product revenue of $93.5 billion to $93.9 billion, about $300 million higher than its prior forecast and above analysts' expectations of $93.4 billion, according to LSEG data. Alongside the upbeat forecast, J&J said it plans to separate its orthopedics business into a standalone company named DePuy Synthes within the next 18 to 24 months, marking its second major spinoff since 2023. J&J's orthopedics unit, which makes hip, knee, and shoulder implants, surgical instruments, and other products, generated around $9.2 billion last year, or about 10% of total revenue. J&J in 2023 announced a two-year restructuring program for its orthopedics business, saying it planned to exit certain markets and stop selling some products, after having recently spun off its $15 billion consumer unit into Kenvue. The company said it planned to focus on high-growth, high-margin areas as part of its separation plans, such as oncology, immunology, neuroscience, surgery, vision care, and cardiovascular. J&J Chief Financial Officer Joe Wolk said the company was exploring multiple paths for the separation, with...

South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare (APNJ.J), opens new tab said on Monday it had secured regulatory approval to market Eli Lilly's (LLY.N), opens new tab blockbuster diabetes and obesity drug, Mounjaro, for chronic weight management in the country. The greenlight follows Aspen's earlier approval and launch of the drug, chemically called tirzepatide, in South Africa last December as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes. Aspen, a sales agent for Lilly, will launch Mounjaro for weight management in South Africa as an easy-to-use KwikPen injector device. The company has been betting on Mounjaro's imminent launch to compete against Novo Nordisk's (NOVOb.CO), opens new tab rival product, Wegovy, which the Danish drugmaker had debuted in South Africa in August, eight months after Eli Lilly. The approval by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority positions Aspen to tap into the booming weight-loss drug market, which is estimated to reach at least $100 billion by the end of the decade, as global demand for obesity treatments continues to soar.

Roche Diagnostics (ROG.S), opens new tab said on Monday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared its and partner Eli Lilly's (LLY.N), opens new tab blood test as an aid in the initial assessment for Alzheimer's disease. This comes at the heel of FDA's nod for Fujirebio Diagnostics' blood test Lumipulse in May, the first such device to get approval to diagnose the brain-wasting condition. Roche's test Elecsys measures pTau181, a key protein associated with Alzheimer's disease. It is intended for patients ages 55 and older presenting signs, symptoms or complaints of cognitive decline. Blood tests could speed up diagnosis of the disease and make it easier to access treatments such as Biogen (BIIB.O), opens new tab and Eisai's (4523.T), opens new tab Leqembi and Eli Lilly's Kisunla, since traditional tests are often costly or uncomfortable. Other options to detect Alzheimer's include procedures such as a spinal tap, which requires an invasive puncture to collect spinal fluid, or an expensive PET brain scan that may not be reimbursed by health insurers. Analysts have said blood-based diagnostics could be positive for Alzheimer's drugs that have been facing slow starts due to concerns over cost, efficacy and side effects. In July, Biogen said improved rates of blood tests to diagnose the memory-robbing condition have helped with the uptake...

Johnson & Johnson is in discussions to buy Protagonist Therapeutics, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Shares of Protagonist surged more than 30% in afternoon trading. The company had a market capitalization of $4.2 billion as of Thursday's close. The two companies are working on the development of an oral treatment, icotrokinra, for immune diseases, including plaque psoriasis and ulcerative colitis, with J&J holding the exclusive rights to commercialize the product. Protagonist declined to comment, and J&J did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The Wall Street Journal reported the matter earlier in the day.