Company News

The Roche Group reported a 1% growth in sales to CHF 63.3 billion ($69.4 billion) in 2022 as revenue from new products overtook the impact of biosimilar competition and a drop in demand for Covid-19 products. At constant exchange rates, the increase was 2%. In a call with investors on 2 February, Severin Schwan, the outgoing chief executive, said the company had achieved good results, despite considerable headwinds. Sales are expected to decline this year due to a sharp decline in Covid-19 product revenue of about CHF 5 billion.

Grey Wolf Therapeutics Ltd, a biotech company launched in 2017 to develop a new way of targeting solid tumours, has raised $49 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round to bring its first product into the clinic. The financing was co-led by Pfizer Ventures and Earlybird Venture Capital with support from new and existing investors. The company has generated a pipeline of small molecule drugs that inhibit enzymes which play an important role in the presentation of cancer antigens to the immune system. The enzymes are endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidases 1 and 2.

Merck & Co Inc has stopped a trial of Keytruda (pembrolizumab) which was being investigated to treat prostate cancer as part of a combination therapy with the hormone medicine enzalutamide and androgen deprivation therapy. The decision was based on the recommendation of the trial’s independent data monitoring committee on the basis of data from the Phase 3 KEYNOTE-991 trial. The decision was announced on 25 January.

Ahead of its launch as an independent Swiss company, Sandoz AG is strengthening its portfolio of generic medicines with the proposed acquisition of micafungin sodium (Mycamine), an antifungal medicine used to treat invasive candidiasis and oespophageal candidiasis. The prospective transaction is with Astellas Pharma Inc of Japan.

Bayer AG has capped a three-year research partnership with Blackford Analysis Ltd of the UK with an offer to buy the company and expand its presence in the field of medical imaging. The financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed. Spun-out from the University of Edinburgh in 2010, Blackford has annual revenue estimated at $5 million.

Sanofi SA has expanded a collaboration with CytoReason Ltd, the Israeli technology company, to include inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in a project that uses artificial intelligence to discover novel disease targets. The two companies have been working together since 2021, initially to identify targets for treating asthma.

IBD describes disorders of tissues in the digestive tract. It includes ulcerative colitis, which involves inflammation of the lining of the large intestine and rectum, and Crohn’s disease, involving inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract.

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a complete response letter (CRL) to Eli Lilly and Company for its application for an accelerated approval of the investigative treatment for Alzheimer’s disease donanemab. A CRL is a formal notice to a company in which the agency explains why it cannot accept an application for a drug approval, usually citing deficiencies in the application itself. Donanemab is a monoclonal antibody that targets beta amyloid plaque in the brain for the treatment of patients with early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease.

A Phase 3 trial of a candidate vaccine to prevent infection from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has failed and the clinical trial is being discontinued, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies announced on 18 January. The decision was taken on the advice of the study’s independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board which concluded that the vaccine was not effective in preventing HIV infection compared with a placebo. No safety issues related to the vaccine were identified.

The Roche Group has reported the success of a combination therapy in reducing the risk of cancer recurrence in patients with early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma. A Phase 3 trial which combined the immune checkpoint inhibitor Tecentriq (atezolizumab) and Avastin (bevacizumab) and was administered as an adjuvant treatment after surgery, showed a statistically significant improvement in recurrence-free survival in patients at an increased risk of their disease returning.

The UK biotech, TC BioPharm (Holdings) Plc, has announced a research collaboration with the MD Anderson Cancer Center in the US to investigate how gamma delta T cells can be further mobilised to fight cancer. The Scotland-based company has already reported positive data from an early clinical trial of a gamma delta T cell product in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). As this trial continues, it will also be working with researchers at MD Anderson, which is part of the University of Texas, to better understand how gamma delta T cells behave in patients.