Licensed from PharmaMar for the US market at the start of the year, Jazz Pharmaceuticals is hoping its new small-cell lung cancer therapy, Zepzelca (lurbinectedin), may have potential for other cancer types and in different combinations.

Fundraising in the life sciences sector has been booming even as firms in many other industries are struggling to stay in business. Goodwin’s David Mardle is upbeat about the sector’s ongoing prospects – although M&A deals are currently proving tricky to complete.

Novartis will not start to compete in the increasingly crowded US multiple sclerosis marketplace with ofatumumab this month, as regulators extend the review process for the B-cell depleting therapy until September.

EU Approvals: Takeda advances its targeted ALK-positive NSCLC tyrosine kinase inhibitor into early lines of therapy, while Bayer and Finland’s Orion gain clearance for their androgen receptor inhibitor for prostate cancer.

The CLL market segment in the EU will now include a first-line combination therapy of AbbVie’s venetoclax and Roche’s obinutuzumab, which has recently been approved by the European Commission.

Research published in JAMA shows that the pharmaceutical industry outpaces other industries in the S&P 500 on several measures of profitability. 

Alnylam’s short-interfering RNA, Givlaari, has become the first treatment to be approved for preventing attacks of acute hepatic porphyria in the EU, and Alnylam wants to pursue a value-based agreement framework to accelerate patient and provider access.

Industry advisers at the BIO CEO & Investor meeting remained optimistic about the pharmaceutical deal environment in 2020 – even with the uncertainty around a looming US election year. 

Top-line Phase III results from Incyte’s TruE-AD2 study of ruxolitinib cream and Eli Lilly’s BREEZE-AD4 and BREEZE-AD5 studies of oral baricitinib show that the compounds achieved primary endpoints in atopic dermatitis, and they may eventually challenge Sanofi’s Dupixent’s growth in the sector.