Today, a brief rundown of news involving Sanofi and Supernus Pharmaceuticals, as well as updates from Arcus Biosciences, Gilead Sciences and Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical that you might have missed.
Sanofi and CD&R reached an agreement to hand the private equity firm a 50% stake in the French pharmaceutical company’s consumer health business Opella. Bpifrance, the state-owned investment bank of France, will take a 2% minority stake. The deal, which was outlined last October, is expected to close in the second quarter, Sanofi said. Selling off a stake will give Sanofi funds to invest more in its prescription drug research. — Ned Pagliarulo
An experimental drug from Supernus Pharmaceuticals has failed in a mid-stage study of adults with treatment-resistant depression. The oral drug, code-named SPN-820, is meant to enhance a protein complex that research suggests is involved with brain cell signaling and function. Supernus said that, while well-tolerated, SPN-820 was not significantly better than a placebo at improving depressive symptoms after four weeks of treatment. According to CEO Jack Khattar, the company plans to further analyze data from the trial and discuss the future of the program with its development partner, Navitor Pharmaceuticals. Supernus shares were down by double digits Wednesday morning. — Jacob Bell
Arcus Biosciences will keep control of its experimental cancer drug casdatifan after Gilead Sciences declined to license it via an option right granted under a 10-year collaboration the companies signed in 2020. Casdatifan is what’s known as a HIF-2a inhibitor, similar in mechanism to Merck & Co.’s recently approved medicine Welireg. Arcus is developing casdatifan for clear cell renal cell carcinoma and on Tuesday announced a $150 million stock offering that will fund independent development of the drug. — Ned Pagliarulo
Gilead hopes to this year win U.S. clearance of its drug lenacapavir as pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV. The big biotechnology firm on Tuesday announced the Food and Drug Administration accepted its approval application and set a decision deadline of June 19, 2025. A new kind of HIV antiviral, lenacapavir is already marketed in several countries as a treatment, together with other medicines, for multi-drug resistant HIV. If approved for PrEP, lenacapavir would be the first twice-yearly option for HIV prevention, according to Gilead. — Ned Pagliarulo
By mid-August, the FDA will decide whether to approve a gene therapy developed by Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical for Sanfilippo syndrome type A, a rare and deadly lysosomal storage disease. The therapy, called UX111, uses an adeno-associated virus to deliver a functional gene capable of producing an enzyme people with Sanfilippo lack. Originally developed by Abeona Therapeutics, UX111 was transferred to Ultragenyx in a 2022 deal. The company does not expect the FDA to call an advisory committee meeting as part of the agency’s review. — Ned Pagliarulo
