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Gilead Sciences said on Monday it will buy cancer therapy partner Arcellx for an implied equity value of $7.8 billion, expanding their cell therapy development collaboration that started in 2022. Shares of Arcellx climbed 77.8% to $113.99 while Gilead fell about 1% in premarket trading. Gilead will pay $115 per share in cash at the deal's closing, which is at a premium of 79% to the stock's last close. Kite Pharma, a unit of Gilead Sciences, was partnering with Arcellx to jointly develop and sell anito-cel, an experimental CAR-T therapy for multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer. CAR-T cell therapy is a cancer treatment that uses a patient's own genetically modified immune cells to find and kill cancer cells. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently reviewing the therapy, with a decision expected by December 23 this year. Upon FDA approval of anito-cel, the proposed transaction is expected to be accretive to earnings per share in 2028 and thereafter. Gilead will also pay Arcellx shareholders $5 per share, contingent upon the achievement of cumulative global net sales of anito-cel of at least $6 billion from launch through year-end 2029.

Last year was a good year for Swiss pharma. Roche’s sales rose 7% (at constant exchange rates) to CHF61.5 billion ($79.8 billion), driven by strong demand for drugs for multiple sclerosis, eye diseases and Haemophilia A. With ten new molecules entering late-stage clinical trials, 2025 was “very much a record year for Roche”, said CEO Thomas Schinecker at the company’s annual results media conference in January. Its cross-town rival, Novartis, was also upbeat about 2025, with sales of key brands “well above expectations”, according to its annual reportExternal link, enough to boost CEO Vas Narasimhan’s compensation by 30%. Even with generic competition expected to dent sales in 2026, Novartis’ US shares were trading at all-time highs in early February. They are now the two most valuable companies in Switzerland, according to a global ranking by consulting firmExternal link EY. Roche rose to 31st from 46th with a market capitalisation of $353.4 billion, up more than 50% on the previous year. Novartis rose from 66th to 53rd with $265.2 billion, replacing food giant Nestlé as the second-most valuable Swiss company. One would assume all this good news for Switzerland’s largest companies would be good news for Switzerland. The two companies are among the...

Hims & Hers Health said on Thursday it will acquire Australian digital health company Eucalyptus in a deal valued at up to $1.15 billion, as the U.S. telehealth platform seeks to broaden its personalized care business into new international markets. The deal would give Hims & Hers a foothold in Australia and Japan while deepening its presence in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada through partnerships with established regional operators. Eucalyptus operates several consumer-focused brands globally, including weight-loss program Juniper and men's telehealth brand Pilot, and has served more than 775,000 customers, according to Hims & Hers. Hims & Hers is currently facing a lawsuit from Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk NOVO_B after a crackdown from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration forced it to abruptly withdraw its newly launched $49 copy of Novo's blockbuster weight-loss pill Wegovy. The deal is expected to close during the middle of calendar year 2026. About $240 million will be payable in cash upon closing of the acquisition, Hims & Hers said.

ROME, Georgia, Feb 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he met Vas Narasimhan, the chief executive officer of Swiss drugmaker Novartis, at the White House on Wednesday. Trump, addressing workers at a steel plant in Rome, Georgia on Thursday, said Narasimhan told him during the meeting that his company was building 11 U.S. plants as ⁠a result of the president's tariff policies. "We appreciate the opportunity to update ⁠the U.S. government on our progress, including recent groundbreakings for manufacturing and research facilities in North Carolina and California and plans to expand our radioligand therapy manufacturing network with a new site in Florida," a spokesperson for Novartis told Reuters in an emailed statement. "We appreciate the opportunity to update ⁠the U.S. government on our progress, including recent groundbreakings for manufacturing and research facilities in North Carolina and California and plans to expand our radioligand therapy manufacturing network with a new site in Florida," a spokesperson for Novartis told Reuters in an emailed statement. The statement did not add any details on the number of facilities planned in the U.S. Last year, the Swiss drugmaker said it planned to spend $23 billion to build and expand 10 facilities in the U.S. after the Trump...

Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday it will invest more than $1 billion to build a new cell therapy facility in Pennsylvania, part of its larger plans announced last year to scale up US manufacturing amid President Donald Trump's tariff threats. In March, the company announced a plan to ⁠invest ⁠more than $55 billion through early 2029 to build manufacturing facilities and research infrastructure in the U.S., including a separate plant at Wilson, North Carolina. The U.S. government imposed a 100% tariff on branded drugs in October, but said it would only apply to producers that had not already broken ground on U.S. manufacturing ⁠plants. Major drugmakers, including Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca, have also committed billions of dollars in investments to scale up their ⁠U.S. footprint in response to Trump's efforts, including tariff threats. J&J said the new facility in Montgomery County will create over 4,000 construction jobs and 500 permanent biomanufacturing jobs once it opens. The company did not disclose when the plant will begin operations. The facility will expand manufacturing capacity for medicines targeting cancer, immune disorders, and neurological diseases, the company said. The company currently has one approved cell therapy, Carvykti, for adults with certain types of multiple myeloma, a cancer ⁠that...

U.S. National Institutes of Health ⁠Director ⁠Jay Bhattacharya will step in as acting director of the ⁠Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a Trump administration official said on Wednesday, part of a broader shakeup within the health department ahead of midterm elections. Health and Human Services Deputy Security Jim O'Neill, who has been serving as acting CDC director since August, will vacate both roles as part of a leadership restructuring within the department, the official added. O'Neill will be offered the position of National Science Foundation director. Bhattacharya's appointment was first reported by The New York Times on Wednesday, while Politico reported O'Neill's departure last Friday. DUAL ROLE Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor ⁠who gained prominence as ⁠a leading critic of lockdowns and widespread COVID-19 restrictions, already leads the nation's premier medical research agency, based in Maryland, where he oversees a nearly $50 billion budget and funding for thousands of scientific projects. He is now tasked with also leading the Atlanta-based CDC, which tracks and responds to domestic and foreign threats to public health. Roughly two-thirds of its budget provides funds to the public health and prevention activities of state and local health agencies. "The notion that the current director of the NIH can take...

Eli Lilly said on Wednesday its weight-loss drug, Zepbound, used with psoriasis treatment Taltz, showed better results in patients with the skin disease and obesity in a late-stage study, compared to Taltz alone. The drugs showed greater improvement in skin symptoms and weight loss in the study that had 274 patients. About 27.1% of patients who had received Taltz and Zepbound reached complete skin clearance and at least 10% weight loss, compared ⁠to 5.8% of patients treated with Taltz alone at 36 weeks, meeting the main goal. Psoriasis is ⁠a chronic condition that causes itchy, scaly patches on the skin. Nearly all trial participants had psoriasis affecting sensitive areas such as the face, scalp or genitals, which are typically hard to treat, Lilly said. In the U.S., about 61% of people with psoriasis also have obesity or are overweight with at least one weight-related co-morbidity, Lilly said. Adverse events during the study were generally mild to moderate, Lilly said, adding that detailed results from the trial will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and discussed with regulators. In another late-stage study, 31.7% of patients who received Taltz plus Zepbound ‌met the main goal of the study of at least a 50% reduction in psoriatic arthritis...

French drugmaker Sanofi said on Monday it will expand its global capability centre (GCC) in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, and increase its workforce to more than 4,500 employees. The centre currently employs over 2,600 people. The biopharmaceutical company said that the expansion would be supported by a "multi-hundred-million" investment, but did not disclose the exact size of the amount. It also did not specify a timeframe for the hiring. n 2024, Sanofi said it would invest 400 million euros ($474.60 million) in its India GCC by the end of the decade. Multinational companies are increasingly setting up so-called global capability centres in India, which have evolved from low-cost back offices to high-value innovation hubs that support operations, finance, research and development. India hosts more than 1,700 GCCs, employing over 1.9 million professionals, according to real estate consultancy Anarock. The consultancy projects the GCC market to reach $105 billion–$110 billion by 2030, expanding at a 10% CAGR, and estimates the number of centres could rise to more than 2,400 by then, driven by a larger talent pool and broader sectoral diversification. The latest hiring would include specialists in research and development, artificial intelligence and data innovation, data analytics, medical affairs, commercial capabilities and corporate functions,...

AstraZeneca is taking its oral GLP-1 drug into phase 3 on the back of a pair of midstage weight loss wins, despite remaining tight-lipped on how the candidate actually performed. The U.K.-based Big Pharma evaluated the therapy, called elecoglipron, in the Vista and Solstice phase 2 studies. The Vista study, which wrapped up in November, assessed weight loss of elecoglipron versus placebo over 36 weeks among 310 patients with obesity or overweight. Meanwhile, the Solstice trial, which finished in December, assessed blood sugar control of elecoglipron versus placebo or semaglutide—the ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy—in 406 participants with Type 2 diabetes. The company disclosed in its full-year 2025 earnings results (PDF) this morning that both trials hit their primary endpoints, and elecoglipron—which AstraZeneca licensed from Eccogene in 2023—will be progressing into phase 3 development this year. However, the pharma is holding back on revealing the level of weight loss the drug induced in each study—a make-or-break factor in the highly competitive obesity space—until the American Diabetes Association conference in June. When asked during this morning’s earnings press conference whether elecoglipron had held its own against the competition, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot wouldn’t get drawn into the specifics. “The only thing I will say is that...

BridgeBio Pharma said its experimental therapy boosted growth rates in children with a rare genetic disorder that causes dwarfism, sending the company's shares 7% higher on Thursday. The company said it plans to seek regulatory approval in the U.S. and Europe in the second half of 2026, and if approved, infigratinib would be the first oral therapy for achondroplasia. In the late-stage trial, the therapy improved growth rate by 1.74 cm, on average, compared with placebo after 52 weeks in children with achondroplasia, a condition that causes disproportionate short stature. In a pre-specified analysis of children aged 3 to 8 years, the therapy also showed statistically significant improvement in body proportions compared with placebo. "We think these results clearly hit and exceed the bar hoped for by investors and make infigratinib highly competitive in the achondroplasia landscape as an oral with superior efficacy and clean safety," said Barclays analyst Eliana Merle. Currently, BioMarin Pharmaceutical's injection, Voxzogo, is the only approved drug for the condition. Ascendis' TransCon CNP is currently under review by the U.S. FDA. A safe daily oral option is "always going to be the preferred way of administering medicine for young children," which potentially is a "game changer" in this space, BridgeBio executive...