Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
Dec 24 (Reuters) – Shares of Agios Pharmaceuticals (AGIO) jumped nearly 12% premarket on Wednesday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the expanded use of its drug for the treatment of a type of blood disorder. The drug mitapivat is now approved as a treatment for patients with anemia in both non-transfusion-dependent and transfusion-dependent alpha- or beta-thalassemia, the company said late on Tuesday. Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder affecting the body’s ability to produce hemoglobin and healthy red blood cells. The drug, under the brand name Aqvesme, is expected to be available in late January next year,…
By Bhanvi Satija Dec 24 (Reuters) – Sanofi (SNY) will buy U.S. vaccines company Dynavax Technologies (DVAX) for around $2.2 billion (1.9 billion euros), the French drugmaker said on Wednesday, a deal that will give it access to an approved hepatitis B vaccine. Sanofi has made a string of acquisitions this year, as it looks to diversify growth beyond its blockbuster asthma drug Dupixent. It bought UK private biotech firm Vicebio for $1.5 billion in July shortly after finalising an up to $9.5 billion deal for U.S.-based rare disease drugmaker BluePrint Medicines. The company will pay $15.50 in cash per…
Dec 29 (Reuters) – Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk has nearly halved prices of its obesity drug Wegovy in some Chinese provinces, local media Yicai reported on Monday. The list prices for the two highest dosages of Wegovy were cut by 48% to 987.48 yuan ($141) and 1,284.36 yuan per month respectively in the southwestern Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan, the report said, citing local procurement authorities. Novo did not reply immediately to a request for comment. The drugmaker faces intensifying competition from local rivals in China’s obesity treatment market, as its patent on Wegovy’s active ingredient semaglutide expires in…
By Sneha S K and Sahil Pandey Dec 31 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has declined to approve Corcept Therapeutics’ drug for the treatment of a rare hormonal disorder, the company said on Wednesday. Shares of the drugmaker were down 48% at $36.41. The company said the FDA could not arrive at a favorable benefit-risk assessment for the hormone-blocking oral treatment, known as relacorilant, without Corcept providing additional evidence of effectiveness. The company was seeking approval for relacorilant as a treatment for patients with hypertension secondary to hypercortisolism. “FDA’s request for additional data may require additional trials,…
By Maggie Fick and Dan Levine LONDON/SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 5 (Reuters) – Danish obesity drugmaker Novo Nordisk’s head of public affairs in the U.S. has left the company, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters, at a time when the firm is battling to revive its fortunes in its top market. The company, like other drugmakers, is facing pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump on medicine pricing and is trying to regain lost ground to U.S. rival Eli Lilly in the lucrative and competitive weight-loss market. The departure, previously unreported, sees U.S. public affairs head Jennifer Duck leave the…
Jan 6 (Reuters) – Nimbus Therapeutics said on Tuesday it has entered into a multi-year research and licensing agreement with Eli Lilly (LLY) to develop artificial intelligence-driven new oral treatments for obesity and other metabolic diseases. The U.S. drugmaker will make upfront and near-term milestone payments of $55 million, with an additional $1.3 billion in development and commercial milestones to Nimbus, as well as royalties on global sales if the drug is approved. Drug developers are increasingly adopting AI for discovery and safety testing to get faster and cheaper results, in line with a push by the U.S. Food and…
Tivara raised $3.6 million, backed by Mischief VC, Day One Ventures, and Y Combinator. The startup introduces AI agents to healthcare administration, taking over phone calls and scheduling. Tivara shared its pitch deck with Business Insider — take a look. Tej Seelamsetty dislocated his shoulder in 2024. The 29-year-old told Business Insider that he waited over an hour on the phone to book an appointment with an orthopedist, and then two weeks for insurance to approve his MRI scheduling. Frustrated with the pace of the healthcare system, Seelamsetty cofounded the AI agents startup Tivara with Aumesh Misra. The company promises…
Jan 8 (Reuters) – AnaptysBio said on Thursday it filed a partial motion to dismiss a claim by GSK’s oncology unit, which alleges the biotech breached their contract, escalating a legal dispute over royalties tied to sales of the cancer drug Jemperli. The dispute centers on a 2014 agreement between AnaptysBio and oncology unit Tesaro that gave the latter rights to develop and sell Jemperli, a PD-1 inhibitor approved for certain endometrial cancers. GSK did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for a comment outside business hours. A trial to resolve claims is scheduled for July 14–17, 2026, and the…
By Patrick Wingrove Jan 12 (Reuters) – Moderna said on Monday it expects to report around $1.9 billion in sales for 2025, putting it near the upper end of its previously projected $1.6 billion to $2 billion forecast but well below revenue levels achieved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moderna Chief Financial Officer James Mock said in an interview that U.S. vaccination rates in the retail sector fell by roughly 26% year-over-year in 2025. That decline, at the lower end of the company’s projected 20% to 40% drop, ultimately led to higher sales, he said. The vaccine maker, which is set…
Jan 12 (Reuters) – Novartis will continue to do bolt-on deals and its capital allocation priorities remain unchanged, CEO Vasant Narasimhan said at a major industry conference that kicked off on Monday in San Francisco. “We are always looking for opportunities that fit our core therapeutic areas,” Narasimhan said at the J.P. Morgan healthcare conference. “We want to do deals that make sense, and we have the capital to be able to do that.” The company is focusing on strategic therapeutic areas such as oncology, immunology, neuroscience, and cardiovascular and renal medicine. Novartis has been proactively striking deals to address…