Today, a brief rundown of news from Madrigal Pharmaceuticals and Daiichi Sankyo, as well as updates from Johnson & Johnson, AC Immune and Novartis that you may have missed.
Shares of Madrigal Pharmaceuticals fell by double digits on Thursday despite quarterly numbers for its liver disease drug Rezdiffra that again surpassed consensus estimates. Rezdiffra fourth-quarter sales of $321 million topped those projections by $10 million and there was “nothing to nitpick” in the company’s results, as “all metrics ... were positive,” wrote Cantor Fitzgerald Prakhar Agrawal. Still, a “whisper” of higher expectations among buyside investors and a “higher-than-expected” projected decline in sales next quarter may have triggered the stock sell-off, added Evercore ISI analyst Michael DiFiore in a separate note. Despite the pullback, DiFiore wrote that his team remains positive on the drug’s “fundamental trajectory.” Madrigal shares, which have soared during Rezdiffra’s launch, have lost about a quarter of their value so far this year.
Former Novartis executive John Tsai has been named the new global head of research and development at Japanese pharmaceutical giant and antibody-drug conjugate specialist Daiichi Sankyo. Tsai was Novartis’ chief medical officer for four years until he departed in May 2022 amid an organizational reshuffling. He then served as an executive partner at venture firm Syncona Capital Management. At Daiichi Sankyo, Tsai will replace Ken Takeshita, who’s been running the company’s drug research since 2021. The change will become official on April 1.
Johnson & Johnson will invest more than $1 billion in a new cell therapy manufacturing facility in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The planned facility announced Wednesday is part of a broader commitment by the company to pour $55 billion into U.S. production through early 2029 — one of many pledges drugmakers have made to avoid Trump administration tariffs. J&J said the plant will be staffed with more than 500 workers.
J&J has also temporarily paused enrollment in a mid-stage trial testing an Alzheimer’s vaccine it’s co-developing with AC Immune. In a regulatory filing Thursday, AC Immune said that enrollment was stopped while J&J evaluates “certain aspects of the trial,” which is testing the shot in pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s. AC Immune added that the trial has already met an early goal and that the stoppage wasn’t triggered by any new safety findings. Jefferies analyst Lucy Codrington speculated that the decision was related to “recruitment challenges” and also noted that AC Immune’s “key assets,” among them a different type of Alzheimer’s shot, remain on track.
Novartis will work with biotech startup Unnatural Products to develop a macrocyclic peptide drug, the companies said Wednesday. Macrocyclic peptides are popular among drug startups and designed to merge into a single medicine the strengths of small molecules and biologics. Unnatural is designing these therapies in an effort to get after historically “undruggable” targets. The companies didn’t specify which target the program in the deal is aimed at, but said Unnatural will receive $100 million in upfront cash from Novartis and is eligible for another $1.7 billion if the drug progresses.
