Cardiovascular

In this week's podcast edition of Five Must-Know Things: Novartis gives back Beigene PD-1; BMS revs R&D engine; Anthos changes course for Factor XI asset; the non-incretin pipeline for obesity; and a look at Q2’s top-selling drugs.

The ex-chief medical officer at Novartis is now CEO at the UK-based biotech, which he he told Scrip could have a ‘transformational’ therapy to protect patients after a heart attack.

Ionis will seek US and EU approvals to treat familial chylomicronemia syndrome in the first half of 2024. Phase III data in the larger severe hypertriglyceridemia indication are due in late 2024 or early 2025.

Cytokinetics has a lot riding on the upcoming Phase III readout for aficamten, and crunch time is coming for plenty of other groups, too. 

Sun debuts Pharmazz Inc’s new stroke drug sovateltide in India at under $20/ vial.  The selective endothelin-B receptor agonist, which can be administered up to 24 hours post cerebral ischemic stroke, is also being studied in Alzheimer’s disease.

The KARDIA-1 monotherapy study was successful, but KARDIA-2 will give a better sense of the market opportunity.

A French biotech led by Philip Janiak, former head of cardiovascular research at Sanofi, is looking to bring therapies to heart failure subpopulations with high unmet needs.

The US company has returned rights to the hypertension product to Idorsia, which was already in the grip of a cash crunch and will now face greater difficulties getting the drug to market. 

Novo Nordisk has just become Europe’s most valuable company based on Wegovy’s huge success so far and future potential - but just how big could the obesity market get?

The drug maker added three investigator-initiated studies that will enroll more than 9,000 patients to the existing 6,000-patient MOONRAKER program. It has forecast peak sales of

Armed with highly satisfactory Phase III cholesterol-lowering data, the private group is heading to market alone – though it is open to offers. 

Phase III results with lerodalcibep are in the same ballpark as heavy-hitting established PCSK9 inhibiting drugs.