Metabolic Disorders

Scrip surveys the Phase III clinical trial readout landscape and picks 10 of the more interesting studies set to report in 2023, with a few added extras. AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, Novartis and Roche feature heavily.

Executives told Scrip the company is ready to move five programs into Phase III and launch five products this year, including an obesity indication for Mounjaro, but one drug has since received a CRL.

Oramed's attempts to advance an oral formulation of insulin for type 2 diabetes patients have been scuppered with a Phase III fail that has sunk the stock.

Two clinical trial announcements in the same NASH indication separated by almost nine years had very similar stock price reactions despite the known unknowns of NASH remaining unknown.

While other gene therapy companies faced major clinical and financing problems in 2022, Rocket Pharma sidestepped some of these pitfalls and is gearing up for two US filings this year.

Scrip has taken a look back at five of the biggest story themes in no particular order of 2022 where once again the biopharma industry had plenty on its plate.

Scrip takes a look at key recent drug development activities in the NASH area by Korean firms, which are now pursuing the global development of their candidates as they look to leverage innovation to expand internationally.

The Japan-UK group is ending the year on a high, banking $37m upfront from a pact with Eli Lilly that will focus on finding small molecules which modulate G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) targets.

Lilly will increase spending, resulting in lower-than-expected EPS, to drive its revenue growth, relying on sales of new products, particularly its next generation of incretin agonists for diabetes and obesity.

The company has been publicly reprimanded for its training program for UK pharmacists, which the industry watchdog judged to be solely focused on increasing use of weight loss drug Saxenda

Early data in Gaucher disease suggest Avrobio’s hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy could help patients who do not response to enzyme replacement therapy.

When Mads Øvlisen was persuaded by his father-in-law to join the family business, Novo Industri, in 1974 for a short stint in the legal department, little did he know it would the beginning of a lifetime of service to the company that he helped to shape into the diabetes powerhouse it is today.