Today, a brief rundown of news involving AstraZeneca and a legal battle between Celgene shareholders and Bristol Myers Squibb, as well as updates from MapLight Therapeutics and Sandoz that you may have missed.
A combination of AstraZeneca’s drug Tagrisso and Hutchmed’s Orpathys helped people with a type of mutated lung cancer live longer than those given chemotherapy, the companies said Monday. The trial was in people with EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer that is driven by a mutation called MET who’d already had their disease get worse after first- or second-line treatment with Tagrisso. The combination delayed disease progression or death compared with chemotherapy, as well as extending overall survival, the companies said. In a statement, Susan Galbraith, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president of oncology and hematology research, said the companies “aim to deliver the first biomarker-directed, all-oral option in this setting to patients across the globe.” Tagrisso is approved in the U.S. and other major jurisdictions, while Orpathys, which AstraZeneca is commercializing, is approved in China and Switzerland. — Jonathan Gardner
Chinese pharmaceutical firm Shanghai Henlius Biotech announced Monday it inked a deal with Sandoz to license out three biosimilars in a pact worth as much as $232 million. Per the agreement, Sandoz is expected to pay just over $100 million in 2026 for near-copies of Eli Lilly’s Erbitux, or cetuximab; Amgen’s Repatha, or evolocumab; and GSK’s Benlysta, or belimumab. Sandoz also acquired the option to license HLXTE-HAase1001, an experimental compound that Henlius said can convert “time-consuming intravenous infusion into rapid subcutaneous injection.” The Swiss generic drugmaker was the first to win approval for a biosimilar two decades ago as part of Novartis, and now makes roughly 1,300 medicines. — Gwendolyn Wu
A federal appeals court resurrected a lawsuit by investors of Celgene against Bristol Myers Squibb over contingent payments promised under the two companies’ 2019 acquisition deal. The former Celgene investors, through their trustee, UMB Bank, have claimed Bristol Myers intentionally slowed development of the Celgene-developed cancer cell therapy Breyanzi to avoid paying out more than $6 billion due as part of a “contingent value right” that helped get the deal to completion. A federal district judge in 2024 ruled that UMB had been improperly appointed trustee, negating its claims. Appeals court Judge Beth Robinson last week ruled that because all parties to the agreement recognized UMB as the trustee, it had standing to sue. The case will now be sent back to the district court for further argument. — Jonathan Gardner
MapLight Therapeutics is considering partnerships as a path forward for one of its most advanced research projects. Tucked into the company’s earnings report late last week was an update on “ML-004,” a drug designed to bind to serotonin receptors. ML-004 recently came up short in a mid-stage study focused on autism spectrum disorder, but MapLight still touts how it appeared safe and “demonstrated clinically meaningful improvements in irritability.” The company is now deciding what to do with the drug, with possible options including strategic collaborations, “funding alternatives” or both. Analysts haven’t attributed much of MapLight’s value to ML-004. At TD Cowen, for example, analyst Joseph Thome doesn’t factor it into his model, viewing the program instead as an “upside optionality.” — Jacob Bell
