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Pfizer again heads up a physician ranking of vaccine manufacturers, beating Merck & Co. and Moderna to complete an unchanged top three from the last edition of the survey. But, while the rankings held steady, the operating environment has changed quickly to reinforce the value of being in good standing with physicians. ZoomRx generated the league table by asking 58 U.S.-based healthcare professionals (HCPs) about 14 vaccine manufacturers. Respondents graded the companies’ innovation, patient centricity, reputation, HCP centricity and promotions, generating data that ZoomRx used to give each manufacturer a score out of 100. As happened when ZoomRx ran a similar survey in 2024, Pfizer took the top spot after achieving strong scores across all five dimensions. The Big Pharma scored 83 out of 100 after HCPs praised its innovation, reliability and sales execution in particular. Merck took second place, scoring 48 out of 100 on the strength of its consistent quality, education and support. A score of 37 was enough to give Moderna third place, in large part because of the reputation for innovation and scientific credibility that it gained during the pandemic. In another repeat of the previous standings, GSK took fourth place with a score of 34. AstraZeneca was the...

German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim will license an experimental inflammatory bowel disease treatment ‌from China's Simcere Pharmaceutical Group, paying 42 million ‌euros upfront and up to another 1,016 million euros if developmental, regulatory and sales milestones are met. The deal "further ⁠validates the innovation capabilities and technological leadership of the Group’s autoimmune research and development platform," Simcere said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday. The licensed drug candidate, SIM0709, is designed to block pathways involved in the onset and progression of IBD. It is a pre-clinical asset, Simcere said in a separate statement. The ⁠agreement covers the development and commercialisation of SIM0709. Boehringer Ingelheim has been granted a global licence, excluding the greater China ⁠region. Simcere's therapeutic focuses include neuroscience, oncology, anti-infection and autoimmune disease. The ⁠licensing transaction is its second in the autoimmune field.

Intellia Therapeutics said on Tuesday that the U.S. drug regulator has lifted a clinical hold on one of its late-stage gene therapy trials, allowing the company to resume testing its experimental drug for a rare nerve disease. Shares of the drug developer surged over 20% in premarket trading. The Food and Drug Administration removed the hold on a study testing Intellia's CRISPR-based therapy, nexiguran ziclumeran, in patients with a hereditary condition ⁠that causes nerve damage. The company said it plans to restart enrolling patients at the soonest. The drug is designed as a one-time infusion for people with hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis with polyneuropathy, or ATTRv-PN, a disease where a misshapen protein builds up in the nerves and causes progressive damage. The regulator had paused two related studies in October after a patient in an earlier dosing group developed severe liver related side effects. Intellia said it has since agreed to stronger safety monitoring measures, which enabled regulators to clear the study to move forward. A separate study testing the same therapy in ⁠patients whose hearts are affected by the disease remains on hold. Intellia said it is still working with the FDA on that program and would provide an update once a path forward ⁠is...

China's medicine regulator has ordered a halt to the import, sale and usage of a drug used to treat dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease made by India's Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, according to an announcement posted on Monday. The National Medical Products Administration said ⁠a recent remote inspection found shortcomings in the company's production processes, including in the prevention of contamination and the quality management department's fulfillment of duties. The body banned the sale of Sun Pharma's rivastigmine hydrogen tartrate capsules. A spokesperson for Sun Pharma, India's largest drugmaker by revenue, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug ⁠Administration issued a warning letter to Sun Pharma alleging "significant violations" of "current good manufacturing practice" regulations for pharmaceuticals made at the same ⁠production site in India, according to the U.S. regulator's website. Rivastigmine capsules have ⁠been used as a dementia treatment in China, one study showed.

Novo Nordisk's (NOVOb.CO), opens new tab Wegovy pill was prescribed more than 18,000 times in the U.S. in the first full week after its launch in an encouraging start to the oral weight-loss drug race, according to analysts who cited IQVIA data. Investors are closely watching prescriptions data to see if the Danish drugmaker can press its first-mover advantage against rival Eli Lilly (LLY.N), opens new tab in a competitive weight-loss market. Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with the Reuters Health Rounds newsletter. Sign up here. Oral obesity treatments offer patients greater flexibility and a needle-free alternative, although injectable medications are still expected to dominate for years to come. At least two analysts said the prescription data signals robust early uptake and was tracking ahead of launches of other GLP-1s, as drugmakers shift towards cash-pay consumer models. "The early oral Wegovy launch data is very strong, albeit in a now far better established obesity market versus building the obesity market," Barclays analyst James Gordon said.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk plan to announce new drug pricing deals with the White House, including for their weight loss medicines, in return for Medicare coverage of their products, Endpoints News reported on Tuesday. Under the deal, the companies would offer the lowest dose of their respective obesity drugs at $149 per month, the report said, citing sources familiar with the matter. The agreement can be announced this week, it added. Patients in the U.S. currently pay the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations, and President Donald Trump has been pressuring drugmakers to lower their prices to what patients pay elsewhere. In return, the drugs would gain coverage under Medicare, a federal health insurance program in the U.S. for people aged 65 and older or who have disabilities, which would open up a huge new set of reimbursement, according to the report. Lilly and Novo did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk lowered its full-year profit forecast on Wednesday in an early blow to the Danish drugmaker's new CEO amid a deep restructuring drive to claw back lost ground in a fierce obesity drug market battle. CEO Mike Doustdar, who took the helm in August, said the lower guidance was due to "the lower growth expectations for our GLP-1 treatments." "We aim to accelerate on all fronts to be able to compete better in dynamic and increasingly competitive markets," Doustdar said in a statement. Novo Nordisk said it now expects full-year operating profit - measured in local currencies - growing between 4% and 7% in 2025, compared with its earlier forecast of between 10% and 16%. The company expects sales growth in local currencies of between 8% and 11% this year, compared with its previous 8%-14% range, it added. Novo Nordisk said third-quarter sales rose 5% to 75.0 billion Danish crowns ($11.71 billion), compared with 76.2 billion forecast by analysts in a poll gathered by the company. Sales grew 11% measured in local currencies, which eliminates exchange rate fluctuations. The rise in sales in local currency terms, which has slowed sharply in the last year as competition has risen from rival Eli Lilly and...

Drug developer Compass Pathways said on Tuesday it is pulling forward the expected launch timing of its experimental psilocybin-based depression therapy by 9 to 12 months. The decision follows the completion of enrollment for a late-stage study for the psychedelic-based therapy, COMP360, as well as a positive meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on strategies for its marketing application, including a potential rolling submission. The experimental therapy called COMP360 is based on the psychedelic compound called psilocybin and is designed as a short-term, episodic alternative to daily antidepressants. The company is testing the therapy in patients with treatment-resistant depression, a condition in which patients do not respond adequately to at least two different treatments. In June, data from a late-stage study showed the therapy reduced the severity of depression symptoms in a closely watched study, but fell short of market expectations. Wall Street analysts, however, said the data indicated that COMP360 might get approved.

Novo Nordisk and Pfizer have revised their bids for Metsera, the obesity drug developer said on Tuesday. Novo's revised offer brings the deal value to about $10 billion, while Pfizer is now willing to shell out $8.1 billion. The revised bids come as both companies are engaged in a public dispute to acquire Metsera. Pfizer has filed two lawsuits against Metsera, its board, and Novo Nordisk. The first lawsuit, filed on Friday, claims Novo's bid breaches Pfizer's merger agreement and seeks to bypass antitrust review. Pfizer is asking a court to block Metsera from terminating the deal, with a hearing set for later on Tuesday. As per Novo's new offer, Metsera is also eligible to receive an additional $24.00 per share in cash, up from $22.50, based on development and regulatory approval milestones

Merck said on Tuesday that it has entered into an agreement to receive funds managed by Blackstone Life Sciences for $700 million to develop an experimental cancer therapy. Under the terms of the agreement, Blackstone will fund a portion of the development costs to test sac-TMT, an experimental antibody-drug conjugate. Antibody-drug conjugates are designed to deliver an anti-cancer drug more precisely to malignant cells, causing less damage to healthy cells than chemotherapy. The payment is expected to be made throughout 2026, the companies said. Blackstone is eligible to receive low-to-mid single-digit royalties on net sales of sac-TMT across all approved indications.