In the news this week, Genmab suggests potential investment plans for spin-off biotechs. In other news, alternative COVID-19 vaccines offered to under-30s, and Acadia fails to achieve FDA approval for psychosis drug. 

GENMAB CEO HINTS AT FUTURE INVESTMENT PLANS – CEO of Genmab, Jan van de Winkel, has suggested he would consider branching out with smaller, specialist biotech companies. The application of Genmab’s drugs in many fields, including autoimmune diseases, has shown potential to spin out smaller arms of the company in different disease areas, according to Van de Winkel. He stated he had ambitions for the company “to build an innovation powerhouse on our own.”

ALTERNATIVE COVID-19 VACCINE FOR THE YOUNGER POPULATION – After recent reviews by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), under-30s in the UK will be offered alternative COVID-19 vaccines to the AstraZeneca jab. The final decision comes from the MHRA, with CEO Dr June Raine emphasising that the risks of the AstraZeneca vaccine were more ‘finely balanced’ with the benefits for the younger population.

ACADIA PSYCHOSIS DRUG DENIED FDA APPROVAL – Disappointment for Acadia as FDA rejects its psychosis drug, Nuplazid, for approval. Despite approval for the drug for Parkinson’s psychosis in 2016, the FDA denied approving Nuplazid for dementia-related psychosis. The decision came from the Division of Psychiatry, FDA, who inferred one of the reasons was that the “study data has had insufficient numbers of patients in the study with certain less common dementia subtypes.”

R&D
Artios Pharma and Novartis Collaboration Brings Hope for Next Generation Radioligand Therapy 

Manufacturing
EMA Classifies Blood Clot Risk of AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine as ‘Very Rare Side Effect’ Linked with Low Blood Platelets 

Clinical
Eli Lily Fails to Reach End Goal with Arthritis Drug of Preventing Mechanical Ventilation in COVID-19 Patients

That’s all for now. See you next week!

Charlotte Di Salvo, Junior Medical Writer
Proventa International