Commercial

All eyes are on Eylea, after Amgen said last week that it would launch the first US biosimilar in the face of ongoing litigation. The California-based player has spoken of its prospects in the wet-AMD space, including a desire to chart its own path amid supply shortages for Avastin.

As it posts third-quarter numbers that again reveal the decline of revenues from its multiple sclerosis portfolio, the US biotech major is entering into the hot area of targeted protein degradation to boost its immunology and neurology pipeline.

The Swiss giant has raised its forecast for the full financial year, as Cosentyx, Entresto and its oncology portfolio continue to shine, helped by the firm's sleeker selling organization.

Despite a successful Phase III study of ALXN-1840 for the inherited disorder that prevents the liver from filtering copper out of the body, the UK major's rare disease division Alexion pulled the plug on the program last summer. However, Illinois-based biotech Monopar is confident in its potential.

Big pharma executives at ARM’s Cell and Gene Meeting on the Mesa shared some of the practical challenges of bringing one-time treatments to market in hemophilia, cancer and beyond.

Medtech Insight spoke with Vicky Demas, CEO of Identifeye, about plans for bringing the company’s AI-powered retinal screening system for early detection of diabetic retinopathy to primary care facilities. More than 50% of the roughly 38 million Americans who have diabetes skip retinal screenings at present, increasing risk of developing the leading cause of blindness in adults.

Sanofi and Orano Med have kicked off a joint venture worth $1.9bn to develop alpha-emitting cancer therapies, underscoring the importance of this space to big pharma.

Start-ups pitched a diverse deck of innovative technologies to three judges and an audience of potential investors, strategics and physicians at the Octane Medical Innovation Forum in Irvine, CA. Highlights include neuromodulation company Sinaptica Therapeutics, which won the competition for both “People’s Choice” and “Judge’s Choice.”

China gets more complicated as multinational drug makers venture deep into it. Even with a local savvy business partner, Merck is learning to navigate through fast-shifting market dynamics amid policy changes, consumer perceptions of foreign brands, and competition from local firms as it takes stock of its market access, pricing and life cycle management strategies.

The US major is investing over $360m in new money into the UK but the country has being losing its lustre as an appealing place to invest since Brexit and needs to offer more to multinationals.