Professors Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman have been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of vaccines against Covid-19. Their findings have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system according to the Nobel Assembly, which awards the prize.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 has been awarded to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots. Quantum dots are nanoparticles consisting of just a few thousand atoms whose size determines their properties. Their wide-ranging uses include television screens and computer monitors, LED lamps, as well as applications to illuminate tumour tissue in surgery.
MinervaX ApS of Denmark announced receipt on 11 October of €54 million in an upsized venture financing event to support its candidate prophylactic vaccine against the Group B streptococcus bacterium, a cause of serious illness in newborns. The financing syndicate includes new investors EQT Life Sciences and OrbiMed, with participation from nine other investment groups. It will raise MinervaX’s financial reserves to €125 million, enabling the company to start a Phase 3 trial of the vaccine for maternal immunisations in 2024. A vaccine is also under investigation for older adults.
The European Medicines Agency has given a positive opinion to a new drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a genetic disorder primarily affecting males, which can lead to progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. The developer is Santhera Pharmaceuticals AG of Switzerland. The drug, Agamree (vamorolone), is a small molecule anti-inflammatory medicine that is being positioned as an alternative to corticosteroids, the current standard of care.
Pfizer Inc has received regulatory approval in the US for a personalised, or precision, medicine for lung cancer that demonstrated efficacy in a single-arm trial in both treatment naïve and previously treated patients with BRAF-V600E mutant metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. The medicine, Braftovi (encorafenib) and Mektovi (binimetinib), is a combination therapy that was first approved in 2018, but has since been updated. The newest approval includes two companion diagnostics that can identify BRAF V600E mutations in plasma or tumour tissue.
In a boost for precision medicine, Bristol Myers Squibb Co is to spend up to $5.8 billion to buy Mirati Therapeutics Inc of the US which uses molecular biology to design drugs that are intended to arrest cancer growth by targeting specific genetic mutations. BMS will pay $58 per share for the precision medicine company, representing an outlay of $4.8 billion. If Mirati shareholders decide to buy additional non-tradeable contingent value rights, the value of the acquisition could rise to as much as $5.8 billion.
On 4 October, Novartis completed the spin-off of Sandoz, its generic and biosimilar business unit, enabling it to focus exclusively on the development and sale of proprietary medicines. The long anticipated transaction involved the listing of Sandoz Group AG shares on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich, Switzerland and its American Depositary Receipts on an over-the-counter market in the US. Each shareholder of Novartis received one Sandoz share for every five Novartis shares held, or one Sandoz ADR for every five Novartis ADRs.
The radiopharmaceutical sector has a new player. This is Eli Lilly and Co which is to pay $1.4 billion to acquire POINT Biopharma Global Inc of Indianapolis, US, a clinical stage company with candidate radioligand therapies for the treatment of cancer. The deal, valued at $12.50 per share in cash, has been approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to close by the end of the year.
Sanofi SA is to expand its portfolio with the in-licensing of a candidate vaccine targeting extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli, a gram negative bacterium that causes urinary tract infections and potentially sepsis. The vaccine was developed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc and is currently in Phase 3 development
A diagnostic test for cancer was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration on 30 September which will help physicians detect hundreds of genetic variants associated with a person’s elevated risk of developing certain malignancies. Produced by Invitae Corp, the test also identifies potentially cancer-associated hereditary variants in individuals who have already been diagnosed with cancer.