Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
Feb 19 (Reuters) – Cassava Sciences said on Thursday the U.S. Department of Justice had ended its probe into the company regarding allegations of research misconduct for its experimental Alzheimer’s drug simufilam. The company said the probe ended four months after the Justice Department dismissed a criminal indictment in Maryland accusing Hoau-Yan Wang, a medical professor and former Cassava adviser who allegedly submitted false data regarding the drug. Cassava scrapped the development of the drug for Alzheimer’s last year following disappointing clinical trial results. The biotech has previously been charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading claims…
By Jonathan Stempel Feb 19 (Reuters) – The Washington Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Thursday that Amazon.com must face lawsuits by families that lost relatives who died by suicide after consuming sodium nitrite they bought from outside vendors on the retailer’s website. All nine justices rejected a ruling by an intermediate-level appeals court that the families could not sue Amazon for negligence because suicide was a superseding cause of their relatives’ deaths. Justice G. Helen Whitener wrote that Amazon owed customers a duty of reasonable care, and must avoid exposing them to “harm from the foreseeable conduct of a third…
Feb 19 (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson is preparing a potential sale of the orthopedics unit that it has been planning to separate, with big buyout firms already circling, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The business, known as DePuy Synthes, could be valued at more than $20 billion in a sale, according to Bloomberg. The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. J&J last year said it had planned to separate its orthopedics business into a standalone company within the next 18 to 24 months, marking its second major spinoff…
Feb 19 (Reuters) – German biopharmaceutical company BioNTech sued Moderna in Delaware federal court on Thursday, alleging that Moderna’s COVID-19 shot mNEXSPIKE infringes a patent related to COVID vaccine technology. The lawsuit said that mNEXSPIKE, Moderna’s next-generation COVID shot approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2025, violates BioNTech’s rights in technology for a streamlined messenger RNA-based vaccine design that can be given to patients at a lower dosage. Moderna sued BioNTech and its partner Pfizer for patent infringement over their COVID shot Comirnaty in 2022, in a lawsuit that is ongoing. The cases are among a wave…
By Marcelo Teixeira NEW YORK, Feb 20 (Reuters) – The U.S. sugar industry could be impacted by regulatory changes as the federal government prepares to implement stricter dietary guidelines that could further reduce domestic demand for the sweetener, a top industry executive said on Thursday. New school meal standards, updated dietary recommendations calling for zero added sugars, and rising use of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs could reduce sugar consumption at a time when federal agencies are also working to define what is classified as “processed food,” potentially triggering new labeling requirements or taxes on products. Courtney Gaine, president and CEO of…
Feb 23 (Reuters) – Novo Nordisk’s next-generation weight-loss drug CagriSema was less effective than Eli Lilly’s Zepbound in a head-to-head trial, a fresh blow to the Danish drugmaker’s efforts to reclaim its early lead in the booming obesity drug market. Below are some reactions from analysts. Michael Leuchten, Jefferies “Where all of this is a headache is that Novo’s terminal value pivots around amycretin, which like CagriSema is a GLP-1/amylin combination (albeit in one molecule), so the failure of REDEFINE-4 and commercial uncertainty versus competition does little to calm long-term investor nerves.” “Investors’ focus will likely now turn to management’s…
Feb 23 (Reuters) – Eli Lilly said on Monday it received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval to launch a four-dose KwikPen for its weight-loss drug Zepbound, delivering a full month of the treatment in a single device. Rival Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy has been sold as a single-dose weekly autoinjector pen for weight loss in the U.S. since 2021. Here are some details: * Zepbound KwikPen will be available starting at $299 per month for the 2.5-milligram dose for cash-paying customers * The multi-dose injection pen will be available in all six doses – 2.5 mg, 5 mg, 7.5…
Feb 23 (Reuters) – Gilead Sciences will pay as much as $7.8 billion to acquire its partner Arcellex in its largest deal since 2020, the biopharma company said on Monday, as it looks to strengthen its lineup of cancer treatments. The company, which has a strong foothold in HIV drugs and liver disease treatments, has been looking for growth beyond its core areas as it faces declining sales of its COVID-19 drug Veklury and prepares for future patent losses. It will pay $115 per share in cash, which is at a premium of 79% to the stock’s last close. Shares…
Feb 23 (Reuters) – Novo Nordisk shares slumped by more than 16% on Monday, wiping away the remaining gains brought by its blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy, after the drugmaker said its next-generation obesity drug CagriSema underperformed Eli Lilly’s rival. Novo, which in 2024 was worth more than $650 billion, has since shed around $475 billion, with the shares back at levels last seen before Wegovy transformed it into Europe’s most valuable drugmaker. Novo’s shares fell to their lowest level since June 2021, when Wegovy was first launched, driving a long sales and share price boom that even helped propel Denmark’s…
SHANGHAI, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Pfizer has entered an agreement to license Sciwind Biosciences’ type 2 diabetes treatment ecnoglutide, with potential payments of up to $495 million if milestones are met, the Chinese drugmaker said on Tuesday. The deal represents “an important first step to advance Pfizer’s global strategy in the metabolic field in China,” Sciwind said in a statement on its website. The Hangzhou-based company’s injection belongs to a class of drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists that has also seen investment from drugmakers including Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Innovent Biologics and Guangzhou Innogen. In December, Pfizer licensed from another…