An antibody drug developed by Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH to prevent flares in generalised pustular psoriasis (GPP), a rare skin disease, has met its primary and key secondary endpoints in a Phase 2b trial of patients with the disease. Spesolimab (Spevigo) has already been approved for the treatment of the disease.
A new company in Scotland, UK has secured £2.4 million from KHAN Technology Transfer Fund I (KHAN-I) and existing investor Cumulus Oncology to pursue research into candidate molecules targeting DNA damage response. Nodus Oncology Ltd was founded in September 2022 to develop inhibitors of proteins involved in the repair of cells with DNA damage.
Evonetix Ltd, a UK synthetic biology company, has raised $24 million from a group of private investors to continue development of technology to enable the synthesis of DNA on a silicon chip. The latest funding is an extension of a Series B financing round that raised $30 million in 2020. The $54 million now available to the company will support development and commercialisation of the company’s semiconductor chips for multiple applications.
Diabetes drugs, especially the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medicines, drove sales at Novo Nordisk A/S to their highest level in five years giving a significant boost to both operating and net profits. Announcing its 2022 financial results on 1 February, the Danish company declared a total dividend for the year of DKK 12.40, up by 19% from a year earlier.
Net sales in 2022 were DKK 176.9 billion ($25.4 billion), up by 26%. At constant exchange rates the increase was 16%. Operating profit was DKK 74.8 billion, up by 28%, and represented 42.3% of sales.
With a strong contribution from the anti-inflammatory drug Dupixent and influenza vaccines, Sanofi SA was able to increase both sales and operating profit in 2022, paving the way for future investment. Sales were €42.9 billion in 2022, up by 13.9% from a year earlier. Measured in constant exchange rates, the increase was 7%. Operating profit was €8.5 billion, up by 5% on the basis of International Financial Reporting Standards.
Novartis spent 2022 executing a reorganisation that will see it spin off Sandoz, its generics and biosimilars business, into a separately incorporated Swiss company. The spin-off is set to take place in the second half of this year, the company has confirmed. This is the first of two pillars of a new structure that will see the parent company focus exclusively on proprietary medicines.
2022 was a time of structural change for GSK Plc, putting it on the path for a tighter focus on the development of specialty medicines and vaccines. The year was marked by the demerger of the company’s consumer healthcare business, the acquisition of two specialty medicine companies, and record sales for the shingles vaccine Shingrix.
The Roche Group reported a 1% growth in sales to CHF 63.3 billion ($69.4 billion) in 2022 as revenue from new products overtook the impact of biosimilar competition and a drop in demand for Covid-19 products. At constant exchange rates, the increase was 2%. In a call with investors on 2 February, Severin Schwan, the outgoing chief executive, said the company had achieved good results, despite considerable headwinds. Sales are expected to decline this year due to a sharp decline in Covid-19 product revenue of about CHF 5 billion.
Grey Wolf Therapeutics Ltd, a biotech company launched in 2017 to develop a new way of targeting solid tumours, has raised $49 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round to bring its first product into the clinic. The financing was co-led by Pfizer Ventures and Earlybird Venture Capital with support from new and existing investors. The company has generated a pipeline of small molecule drugs that inhibit enzymes which play an important role in the presentation of cancer antigens to the immune system. The enzymes are endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidases 1 and 2.
Merck & Co Inc has stopped a trial of Keytruda (pembrolizumab) which was being investigated to treat prostate cancer as part of a combination therapy with the hormone medicine enzalutamide and androgen deprivation therapy. The decision was based on the recommendation of the trial’s independent data monitoring committee on the basis of data from the Phase 3 KEYNOTE-991 trial. The decision was announced on 25 January.