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ASH roundup with Novartis, Roche, BioMarin results; GSK's vaccine plans

Top news

* More than 60% of patients with multiple myeloma — a bone marrow cancer that affects plasma cells — responded to Novartis AG's experimental treatment using engineered versions of their own cells to target the disease. The Swiss company is developing a variation of the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell, or CAR-T, therapy to target a receptor known as B-cell maturation antigen, or BCMA, that tends to be highly prevalent in multiple myeloma.

* Positive data presented at the American Society of Hematology conference shows two new therapies for hemophilia A that aim to eliminate bleeding events entirely, significantly changing the sometimes daily treatment regimens for severe disease. For now, Roche Holding AG's Hemlibra and BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc.'s experimental gene therapy BMN 270 target markedly different patient populations.

* With various public health groups and researchers warning that the world is unprepared for the next big pandemic, drugmakers and various organizations are increasingly moving toward platform technologies intended to rapidly develop vaccines that can be scaled up quickly to respond to outbreaks, rather than pursuing specific products for government stockpiling in anticipation of an epidemic that may never emerge, said Ripley Ballou, GlaxoSmithKline plc's head of global vaccines research and development center in the U.S.

On the policy front

* Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was confident that the two bills aimed at stabilizing the individual health insurance market and offsetting premium increases would be adopted by both chambers before Congress votes on its final tax legislation.

* The U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology said it may reconsider U.S. funding for the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer if the agency does not show transparency in its operations, Reuters reported.

* The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America — an industry trade group — filed a lawsuit challenging a California law that requires notice and justification for a price increase of certain drugs, Reuters reported. The law is set to take effect Jan. 1, 2019.

Drug and product pipeline

* Roche Holding AG said the combination of Tecentriq and Avastin as a first-line treatment slowed disease progression in patients with advanced or metastatic kidney cancer in a phase 3 study.

* Eli Lilly and Co.'s phase 3 trial of Cyramza plus chemotherapy to treat gastric cancer met its main goal of extending life without the disease getting worse. However, the treatment failed its secondary goal of improving overall survival.

* Novartis AG said patients who had responded to treatment with Kymriah for relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma continued to respond to the drug six months after it was first administered.

* Long-term follow-up data from a study of Yescarta in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma showed "encouraging" durability and depth of response, or long-lasting positive reaction to the therapy, Gilead Sciences Inc. said in an analysis presented at the American Society of Hematology meeting.

* Roche Holding AG's Rituxan helped improve the treatment of certain blood-cancer patients whose disease returned when combined with polatuzumab vedotin, an investigational medicine, and chemotherapy, according to results from a phase 2 trial.

* Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co. Ltd. said its drug mogamulizumab was better at containing cancer in patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma when compared to Merck & Co. Inc.'s Zolinza, or vorinostat, in a phase 3 study.

* Celgene Corp. and Bluebird Bio Inc. said their investigational therapy bb2121 for multiple myeloma — a bone marrow cancer that affects plasma cells — demonstrated benefit in updated results from an early stage trial.

* Eisai Co. Ltd. updated its analysis of Halaven combined with Merck & Co. Inc.'s Keytruda as a treatment for triple-negative breast cancer. The study recorded three complete responses and 25 partial responses, which occurred regardless of the patients' prior treatment or PD-1 status.

* The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted the clinical hold on Prescient Therapeutics Ltd's trial for PTX-200 in patients with breast cancer.

Operational activity

* A U.S. District court tentatively denied a request by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and activist investor Bill Ackman to dismiss claims of insider trading by Allergan plc's shareholders.

Other features

* Merck & Co. Inc.'s decision to modify the end goal of a phase 3 trial investigating its cancer drug Keytruda may have impacted its stock price in the near term, but some investors and medical experts are betting the decision will yield returns over the longer term, Reuters wrote.

* The New York Times published a collaborative feature with ProPublica that explores how different health insurers end up paying different prices for individual drugs, which can translate into higher costs for patients purchasing medicine.

* Dietary supplements that are marketed as treatments for opioid addiction are increasingly coming under scrutiny as they lack efficacy data to prove their claims, The New York Times carries a report.

The day ahead

Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher opening for the U.S. market.

In Asia, the Hang Seng was up 1.14% to 28965.29. The Nikkei 225 added 0.56% to 22,938.73.

In Europe as of midday, the FTSE 100 climbed 0.41% to 7,424.24, and the Euronext 100 slid 0.12% to 1,044.22.

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