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The one of the coolest parts of this work gets the chance to discuss the latest science and technology with the people behind it. You can see a lot of the conversations in this week’s series. – Amber Tong
Merck’s C-cuite shake-up
On the heels of Roger Perlmutter and Ken Frazier’s departure, Michael Nally left his chief marketing officer at Merck for greener pastures. After being nominated as CEO for Frazier, Nally eventually lost to CFO Robert Davis, which now leads a fresh C-suite Dean Li as R&D chief and Frank Clyburn, inaugural president of the global oncology industry and recently chief executive officer, in Nally’s previous post.
Eli Lilly Awakens Alzheimer’s Controversy
Nothing drags excitement and controversy as immediately and intensely as Alzheimer’s Eli Lilly demonstrated once again with the presentation of mixed results from its Phase II trial of donanemab. While the pharmaceutical giant announced a statistically significant result for the unconventional primary endpoint it chose, even the optimists were cautious about coming to the conclusion while critics put the meh numbers on the secondary endpoints (which are more traditional measures in previous studies have been used, represented) and side effects. However, Lilly maintained that the data was “extremely important” and was excited about the upcoming key point before going to regulators – by that time they could also have a precedent in Biogen’s aducanumab.
FTC promises pharmaceutical M&A repression
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter did not despise words by exclaiming pharmaceutical mergers. Now as FTC’s acting chairperson, she promises to ‘reconsider’ the review approach of the antitrust watchdog by setting up an international working group to investigate these transactions and promises to consider new proposed transactions in the light of behaviors such as pricing, reverse payments and other misuse of regulations. The group will consist of State Attorneys General, the Department of Justice, as well as British, European and Canadian counterparts. At least one major buyout could be underway.
FDA maintains line over Covid-19 antibodies
Emerging variants of the coronavirus threaten to undermine the three antibody treatments of Eli Lilly and Regeneron authorized for emergency use, promising the FDA to stay on it. The US government no longer distributes Lilly’s bamlanivimab in California, Arizona and Nevada due to the appearance of a viral variant, acting commissioner Janet Woodcock said at a meeting of doctors. And after issuing a letter in which the two companies had to monitor the activities of their medicines, her agency spelled out the available data on the performance of bamlanivimab, bamlanivimab plus etesevimab and the imdevimab / casirivimab cocktail.
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