AbbVie, a biopharmaceutical company, said it plans to buy Botox maker Allergan for about $63 billion, to help reduce its reliance on blockbuster arthritis treatment Humira.
Humira, the world's best-selling drug, already has cheaper versions available in Europe and has its US patents expiring in 2023.
FiercePharma has calculated the top CEO pay packages in biopharma in 2018. The salaries range from nearly $60 million down to $16 million. Amongst the data are some notable trends. First, no women made the list. Emma Walmsley, Big Pharma’s only women CEO had a pay package of $7.75 million, which if doubled still would not make the top 20. Other Big Pharma CEOs not on the list are Novartis, Roche and Sanofi.
As ASCO 2019 comes to an end in Chicago, click here to learn about all the latest oncology news.
After Friday’s FDA approval of Novartis’ gene therapy drug, the company has set a $2.1 million price tag for the one-time treatment. Zogensma has been approved for treatment for pediatric patients less than 2 years of age with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). The price will make it the world’s most expensive drug.
Paul McKenzie, who joined Biogen in 2016 as executive vice president of pharmaceutical operations and technology, has been named Chief Operating Officer at CSL Behring in King of Prussia, PA. CSL Behring, a leading global biotech company, saw its share price rise 30% in 2018, helped in part by Haegarda for treating hereditary angioedema, and Idelvion, a factor IX hemophilia B treatment.
Paul will develop strategy and oversee the global supply chain.
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Alexion, a global biopharmaceutical company, announced its first quarter earnings last week which included numbers on its recent launches of Ultomiris, a new treatment option for adult patients living with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) and Soliris, as a treatment for adult patients with generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) who are anti-acetylcholine receptor (AchR) antibody-positive.
Catalent has bought Paragon Bioservices, a contract development and manufacturing organization for $1.2 billion. This is the second major buyout of a gene therapy manufacturer in the last three weeks.
This deal will get Catalent a newly completed commercial-scale manufacturing facility near Baltimore and position Catalent firmly to capture some of the $40 billion gene therapy market.
There aren’t too many surprises in Fierce Pharma’s list of the top 15 Big Pharma companies in 2018. Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Pfizer, Novartis and Merck & Co were listed in the top 5 with Sanofi slipping 2 spots to number 7 and Gilead slipping 3 spots to number 13. Companies moving up the ranking were Bristol-Myers Squibb who moved up from 15 to 12 after buying Celgene. For next year, keep an eye on Takeda who recently purchased Shire.
Astellas, a pharmaceutical company, received FDA approval for Xospata in November 2018. This drug is for treatment of adult patients who have relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia with the FLT3 mutation.
On Monday at American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, Astellas released Phase 3 data that showed that patients lived a median 9.3 months after therapy, compared with 5.6 months for those receiving salvage chemotherapy.
In an effort to slim down its operations and pay off debt, General Electric has moved to sell its growing biopharma manufacturing business to Danaher. Danaher, a global science and technology innovator, would pay $21.4 billion in the deal which Danaher plans to have operate as a standalone business. The unit is expected to bring in about $3.2 billion in 2019 sales.
After revealing positive data from a phase 1b/2 Keynote-365 trial, Merck has stated it will run phase 3 studies testing Keytruda in tandem with Lynparza, the PARP inhibitor it shares with AstraZeneca; in a cocktail containing the chemotherapy docetaxel and steroid prednisone; and alongside Xtandi, a hot prostate cancer drug from Pfizer and Astellas.