Cardiovascular

In this week's podcast edition of Five Must-Know Things: landmark results for lecanemab in Alzheimer’s; other Alzheimer’s players rise after the lecanemab results; Leqvio’s importance to Novartis; Pfizer’s secret sauce for digitalization; and Amgen’s clinical trial diversity efforts.

While the Phase IIb SOLANO trial of ION449 met its primary endpoint, AstraZeneca had set a high bar of 70% LDL cholesterol reduction for competitiveness that the study did not hit.

Discussion of the launch trajectory for the twice-yearly cholesterol therapy dominated the marketing portion of Novartis’s investor event and the firm is confident the foundations have been laid to push strong sales growth by the second half of next year.

Having finally confirmed the Sandoz spin-off, Novartis will become a 'pure play' pharma company and focus on picking bigger blockbuster winners from both internal and external pipelines. CEO Vas Narasimhan talked details at an investor day in Basel.

The Danish major’s head of development tells Scrip that as cardiovascular disease is very closely related to obesity and diabetes, Novo Nordisk has the expertise to thrive in the former.

Phase III results for Onpattro (patisiran) in ATTR cardiomyopathy pave a path to approval – though the competitive profile is in question – and foreshadow potential success for follow-on drug vutrisiran.

In this week's podcast edition of Five Must-Know Things: new data for Factor XIa inhibitors; Farxiga in heart failure; Lumakras succeeds in lung cancer; MSD’s India head on company plans; and BeiGene’s confidence in IO/IO combinations.

A smooth handover hints at an amicable departure for Jay Bradner, but also gives CEO Vas Narasimhan the chance to refresh strategy with a new team.

BMS/Janssen’s milvexian and Bayer’s asundexian prevented strokes without major increases in severe bleeding and no fatal bleeds but Phase III outcomes are uncertain based on mixed Phase II data.

Treatment with Farxiga led to an 18% reduction in a composite endpoint comprising cardiovascular death or worsening heart failure, putting it in the same ballpark as Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly's Jardiance and its 21% reduction shown in the EMPEROR-Preserved trial last year.

Bristol and Janssen reported Phase II data at the ESC Congress in secondary stroke prevention, an indication not covered by Factor Xa inhibitors. BMS unveiled a three-indication Phase III program.

In this week's podcast edition of Five Must-Know Things: what Amgen’s $3.7bn ChemoCentryx buy means; Lilly’s CEO on US drug pricing legislation; Pfizer’s GBT acquisition; new data for Amgen’s KRAS inhibitor combo; and a major China ADC alliance for Sanofi.