Business Strategy

Public Company Edition: Cullinan and Cidara shifted their strategic directions and found investors to bring along for the ride. Also, Intra-Cellular closed a post-Phase III $575m follow-on offering and Tarsus accessed up to $200m from Pharmakon.

With adalimumab biosimilar market share increasing in the US, AbbVie says revenue erosion is on its expected pace, driven mainly by discounts. Skyrizi, Rinvoq continue growth trajectories.

The drug maker said the program would allow for continued reimbursement when patients change insurance plans. A Sangamo-partnered gene therapy for hemophilia A is also in the works.

Pharma groups must decide how best to invest their cash to generate the biggest returns, and while huge sums can be made with luck and good judgement, strategic missteps can have far-reaching consequences.

The writing was on the wall for InDex after cobitolimod flopped for ulcerative colitis but that should soon been scrubbed off now a reverse-merger candidate has been identified to save the Stockholm-based biotech from liquidation.

Revlimid and Eliquis beat expectations in the first quarter, but the products have dwindling exclusivity, making new drugs the main focus for Bristol. So the company will reinvest cost savings in R&D.

In a head-to-head study of Rinvoq versus Dupixent in atopic dermatitis, the AbbVie drug showed superiority on a composite endpoint measuring skin clearance and itch resolution.

Some patients have already been prescribed the new drug for pulmonary arterial hypertension but Merck & Co. did not provide any sales or guidance. 

CEO Paul Hudson says that the French major will continue to progress early-stage cancer projects despite jettisoning some oncology programs in favor of reallocating much of its research budget to immunology.

ARCH and Foresite incubated the company and recruited Genentech R&D veteran Marc Tessier-Lavigne to keep data generation, machine learning research and drug development under one roof.

Sales of the company’s new drugs have a lot of growing to do to make up for older products’ declines, but Biogen highlighted signs of strength for new launches in its Q1 report.

Cidara conferred global rights to its novel antifungal to marketing partner, Mundipharma, while reacquiring a flu prophylaxis it licensed to J&J in 2021 and gaining $240m in new funding to back development.