Hello and happy Friday, with STAT reporter Andrew Joseph here steering the ship in place of Ed for the day. We’re treating ourselves to a cappuccino at the moment, which will perhaps inspire some of you to get yourself your own Friday reward. Or maybe the promise of a weekend is all that you need to get you through today. In the meantime, a few headlines for you. …
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the pharmaceutical industry enjoyed something of an afterglow, as far as patient advocacy groups were concerned, but that glow is fading, STAT writes. On one hand, a new survey found, 60% of patient groups believed brand-name drugmakers maintained an “excellent” or “good” corporate reputation in 2022, which was up ever-so-slightly from 59% the year before. But just 32% of these groups reported that the 42 brand-name companies examined did an “excellent” or “good” job of improving access to medicines last year. By comparison, 52% thought the companies did a “fair” to “poor” job of providing access.
In a day chock-full of Big Pharma earnings calls and accompanying pipeline culls, Amgen was no exception, slicing both of its mid-stage lupus programs for futility, Fierce Biotech reports. The decision came hours after Lilly did the same for a Nektar Therapeutics-partnered asset. On the chopping block at Amgen is a study of rozibafusp alfa, formerly dubbed AMG 570, a mid-stage antibody-peptide conjugate designed to treat systemic lupus erythematosus —the most common form of lupus. The other immunology program to be cut is a separate phase 2b study of efavaleukin alfa, formerly known as AMG 592.
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