Today, a brief rundown of news from Novartis and Novo Nordisk, as well as updates from Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Ascendis Pharma and Johnson & Johnson that you may have missed.
Novartis said Tuesday it is making adjustments to its Swiss manufacturing facilities that will result in the reduction of 550 employees by the end of 2027. The company plans to focus manufacturing at its site in Stein on sterile dosage forms with a $26 million investment, along with production of personalized cell therapies. It will discontinue manufacturing of other types of medicine like pills and capsules and packaging of sterile products. At its factory in Schweizerhalle, Novartis said it will spend $80 million to expand work in RNA medicines, which will create 80 jobs by the end of 2028. — Jonathan Gardner
Novo Nordisk’s combination metabolic treatment amycretin helped people with diabetes lower their blood sugar and reduce their weight over 36 weeks in a Phase 2 trial, the company said Tuesday. The first evaluation of the experimental drug enrolled 448 people with uncontrolled blood sugar while taking one or two other medications, and tested different doses of both its once-weekly subcutaneous form and its once-daily pill form over 36 weeks. The shot helped lower blood sugar by an average of up to 1.8 percentage points from a mean of 7.8% at trial entry, depending on the dose, compared with a 0.2 percentage point reduction for those taking a placebo. The pill helped lower blood sugar by an average of up to 1.5 percentage points from a mean of 8% at trial entry, depending on dose, compared with a reduction of 0.4 percentage points for those who got a placebo. The shot helped reduce body weight by up to an average of 14.5% from a mean of 99.2 kilograms at trial entry, and the pill reduced weight by an average of up to 10.1% from a mean of 101.1 kilograms at trial entry. Novo now plans to, next year, start a Phase 3 program evaluating amycretin for adults with type 2 diabetes. — Jonathan Gardner
The Food and Drug Administration has extended by three months its deadline for reviewing a medicine from Denmark-based Ascendis Pharma. The medicine, branded as TransCon CNP, is up for approval as a treatment for achondroplasia, a genetic bone disorder that causes dwarfism. According to Ascendis, information on some post-marketing requirements recently provided to the FDA was considered substantial enough that the agency may now take until Feb. 28 to issue an approval verdict. Ascendis’ share price ticked up slightly following the announcement. Li Watsek, an analyst at investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, argues the post-marketing requirements “appear to be a minor issue,” and in a note to clients wrote that it’s “possible” the extension was caused, at least in part, by the Thanksgiving holiday week and capacity constraints at the FDA. — Jacob Bell
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, a California-based drugmaker, announced Monday that it had earned a $200 million payment tied to a licensing and collaboration agreement inked with Sarepta Therapeutics a year ago. Per that deal, Sarepta gained rights to at least seven of Arrowhead’s drugs, including one in human testing as a potential therapy for a muscle-wasting illness called myotonic dystrophy type 1. Arrowhead received $100 million from Sarepta earlier this year, when a trial of that drug hit a first series of milestones. Now, it has hit a second, triggering the new payment. Arrowhead’s therapies are designed to treat diseases through a gene silencing technique known as RNA interference. — Jacob Bell
An experimental medicine from Johnson & Johnson has failed in a mid-stage, “proof-of-concept” study testing it in people with early Alzheimer’s disease. The study, titled Autonomy, enrolled 523 participants and pitted two different doses of J&J’s antibody drug posdienmab against a placebo. In a short, sparsely detailed statement, J&J said a scheduled data review showed its drug wasn’t significantly slowing patients’ decline, and as such the trial will be discontinued. The company plans to share a full evaluation of the data with the scientific community “in due course.” Posdienmab is designed to bind to tau, one of two proteins prominently tied to Alzheimer’s development. — Jacob Bell
