News

Belgium-based UCB SA is to out-license an experimental anti-tau antibody to the Roche group for development as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. The antibody, UCB0107, targets a central tau epitope which is being developed to block or reduce the spread of tau pathology.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc is taking multiple steps to use its vaccine capacity to deliver new products to treat and prevent Covid-19. At the same time, the economic disruption caused by the pandemic is a risk factor for the company’s overall business, Emma Walmsley, the chief executive, told journalists on 29 July.

Germany-based BioNTech SE has raised $512 million in a secondary offering on Nasdaq to support its ongoing therapies for cancer and infectious diseases which include a candidate vaccine for Covid-19. The results of the financing were announced on 27 July, the same day that BioNTech and its partner, Pfizer Inc, launched a Phase 2/3 trial of their messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine candidate for Covid-19.

Two late clinical-stage trials of candidate messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines for Covid-19 have begun, the sponsors announced on 27 July. The developers are Moderna Inc, which is working with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Pfizer Inc, which is collaborating with BioNTech SE of Germany.

AstraZeneca Plc is to co-develop a second antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) with Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd of Japan, this time with the goal of treating multiple cancers with a single drug. The compound, DS-1062, is in early clinical development for non-small cell lung cancer and breast cancer, both of which overexpress the cell-surface glycoprotein Trop2. This protein is overexpressed on a wide variety of tumours.

The Roche group expects sales this year to increase by a low-to mid-single digit percentage at constant exchange rates, despite headwinds from the coronavirus pandemic. Like other pharma companies, Roche’s sales were hit in the second quarter as patients cancelled routine hospital visits in order to comply with lockdown restrictions. This impacted sales of the company’s multiple sclerosis drug Ocrevus; the haemophilia drug Hemlibra; the eye treatment Lucentis; and the cancer treatment MabThera.

A new chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has been approved for cancer – only the third such therapy to be authorised by the US Food and Drug Administration. The drug is Tecartus (brexucabtagene autoleucel), a cell-based gene therapy for the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma, a rare form of B cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma which usually occurs in middle-aged or older adults.

Novartis reported a 4% fall in sales in the second quarter as the coronavirus pandemic depressed business activity, particularly for the company’s ophthalmology business. But sales are expected to recover in the second half, giving a mid single-digit increase at constant currencies for the year as a whole, the company announced on 21 July.

The first head-to-head study of drugs targeting the pro-inflammatory cytokine iterleukin-17 (IL-17) has shown the superiority of bimekizumab, an investigational monoclonal antibody for the treatment of plaque psoriasis, compared with secukinumab (Cosentyx), an approved drug for the same disease, according to UCB SA, the Belgium-based pharmaceutical company.

The results of the Phase 3b head-to-head trial were announced on 24 July.

AstraZeneca Plc has announced the US approval of its triple-combination therapy, Breztri Aerosphere, for the maintenance treatment of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The drug combines budesonide, an inhaled corticosteroid, with glycopyrrolate, a long-acting muscarinic antagonist, and formoterol fumarate, a long-acting beta2 agonist.