Eli Lilly tries a rare tactic: competing on price

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Good morning, everyone. Damian here with a counterintuitive idea in pharma, an ode to scientific matrimony, and the solution to a CAR-T mystery.

The need-to-know this morning
• AstraZeneca announced a licensing deal for a GLP-1 drug candidate in the early stages of clinical development, aiming to compete against more established treatments for diabetes and obesity from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. AstraZeneca paid $185 million upfront for global rights to the oral drug developed by Eccogene, a Chinese drugmaker, and committed another $1.85 billion in future payments contingent on achieving certain milestones.
• AstraZeneca also reported third-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.73 per share on total revenue of $11.49 billion — a modest beat for the top and bottom lines. Cancer drug sales in the quarter rose 15% year over year to $4.6 billion.
• Takeda won approval from the Food and Drug Administration for an oral, targeted therapy to treat patients with metastatic colon cancer no longer responsive to previous chemotherapy. The new drug, called Fruzaqla, works by blocking three related molecular pathways that tumors use to grow.
• Atara Biotherapeutics said its treatment for progressive multiple sclerosis failed to improve a disability score compared to placebo in a mid-stage clinical trial. The company is halting further development of the drug, called ATA188.
• Amylyx Pharmaceuticals reported $103 million in third-quarter sales for its ALS drug Relyvrio – missing analysts’ consensus estimate. A closely followed confirmatory study of Relyvrio will read out results in the second quarter of 2024, the company said.

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