STAT+: Brawl over Eylea gets biosimilar industry’s attention

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Hello! Today, we talk about a cool experimental enzyme therapy, observe more patent maneuvers over Eylea, and see an ‘underdog’ startup get a huge seed round to target a common kidney disease.

The need-to-know this morning

• Soleno Therapeutics pre-announced $31-33 million in Vykat XR sales for the second quarter — beating consensus expectations by a wide margin. The drug was approved in late March to treat Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare genetic disease that causes an insatiable desire to eat. Soleno is also raising $200 million in a follow-on stock sale.
• AbbVie is paying $700 million upfront to acquire licensing rights to a “trispecific antibody” treatment for cancer developed by Ichnos Global Innovation. The drug, called ISB 2001, targets CD38 and BCMA protein receptors on tumor cells and the CD3 receptor on T cells. A Phase 1 study in multiple myeloma is underway.

Brawl over Eylea gets biosimilar industry’s attention

A high-stakes legal fight between Regeneron and Amgen over the blockbuster eye drug Eylea is putting the U.S. patent system under a microscope — and is being closely watched by biosimilar makers.

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