Bayer AG will install a new chief executive on 1 June as it looks to expand its business across the agricultural, pharmaceuticals and consumer health sectors. The new CEO, Bill Anderson, is a former Roche executive with experience in the development and commercialisation of new medicines. He will take up the position on 1 June, succeeding Werner Baumann who has been with Bayer for 35 years.
MorphoSys AG is to stop work on its preclinical research programmes and reduce its workforce in Germany by about 17% in order to marshal resources for its late-stage oncology pipeline. The company announced the decision on 2 March to the Nasdaq and Frankfurt Stock Exchanges where it is listed, alongside a separate press release for investors. MorphoSys is due to report its 2022 fourth quarter and annual results on 15 March.
Pfizer Inc is reportedly holding talks to acquire Seagen Inc, the developer of antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on 26 February. This comes several months after Seagen was courted by Merck & Co Inc, but these negotiations failed to conclude. The discussions with Merck reportedly centered on a deal worth $40 billion or more. Seagen currently has a market value of about $30 billion and would be expected to seek a premium over that price, the newspaper said.
Bolstered by $60 million in receipts from a private share placement, Immunic Inc ended 2022 with cash and investments of $116.4 million, enabling it to fund the clinical development of its products for multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, and celiac disease into the fourth quarter of 2024. The financing, completed in October 2022, was supported by new and existing investors including Deep Track Capital, Commodore Capital and BVF Partners LP.
Galapagos NV ended 2022 with a new chief executive and a restructured pipeline that will expand the company’s research and development capabilities into biologics and cell therapies in addition to its traditional small molecule franchise. At a therapeutic level, the company dropped activities in fibrosis and kidney disease and will concentrate on immunology and oncology.
Genmab A/S continued to derive significant revenue from partnerships with large pharma companies in 2022 while investing heavily in proprietary product development. Revenue grew to DKK 14.59 billion (€1.96 billion) in the year, up by 72% from a year earlier. The Danish company spent DKK 5.562 billion, or 38% of this revenue, on research and development.
Novartis has decided to divest a clinical-stage asset for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in light of a corporate reorganisation that will see it spin-off its Sandoz generics unit and refocus its proprietary medicines business on a limited number of therapeutic areas. This will result in the ending of a collaboration with Pliant Therapeutics Inc of South San Francisco, US. Pliant disclosed the decision in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 17 February.
UCB SA continued to invest significant sums in research and development in 2022 even as group revenue declined under the weight of patent expires. The Belgian-based company saw a 4% decline in revenue to €5.5 billion from a year earlier largely due to the loss of exclusivity for the epilepsy drugs Vimpat and Keppra. At the same time, the company maintained a high level of investment, spending 30% of revenue on new product development during the year, up from 28% in 2021.
Trodelvy (sacituzumab), an antibody drug-conjugate first approved for triple-negative breast cancer, has had its label expanded by the US Food and Drug Administration to include the treatment of metastatic hormone receptor (HR) positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) negative breast cancer. The developer, Gilead Sciences Inc, said the approval was based on statistically significant and clinically meaningful progression-free survival and overall survival data from a Phase 3 study.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first oral treatment for anaemia caused by chronic kidney disease in adults. The drug, Jesduvroq (daprodustat), was developed by GSK Plc and works by increasing the level of the hormone erythropoietin which signals the body to make red blood cells. These cells are deficient in anaemia. Jesduvroq has been approved for adults who have been on dialysis for at least four months. It is not authorised for patients who are not on dialysis. Other treatments approved in the US for this condition are injected into the blood or under the skin.