💊 Zimbabwe's diaspora-supported biotech city; Counterfeit drugs in Pakistan; Looking down our drains

#436 | Making mosquitoes sick; Improving T-cell memory; Future-proofing vaccines

Hello there. Welcome back to The Kable for a big day for Big Pharma. But first, a diaspora-led group of biotech experts have inked an MoU with the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA) to construct a multibillion-dollar biotech city in Zimbabwe. The group hopes to kickstart operations on this project as early as February 2024. We hope this is the first of many more initiatives to counter the ongoing brain drain in Africa.

Novo Nordisk is shelling out $60 million upfront to license three preclinical cardiovascular disease programmes now and up to 8 more programmes in future from Valo Health. This AI-based drug discovery pact will leverage Valo’s computational technology platform Opal to target cardiovascular disease. With potential milestone payments from all these programmes, the deal could touch $2.7 billion in value. After its recent acquisitions of Inversago Pharma and Embark Biotech, this deal marks an expansion of Novo Nordisk’s cardiometabolic disorder pipeline.

Novartis met the primary endpoint in a phase 3 trial of its radioligand therapy (RLT) Lutathera as a first-line treatment for gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (GEP-NETs). This is the first such therapy to demonstrate clinically meaningful first-line benefit. The FDA had already approved this drug in 2018 for patients whose disease had progressed on standard treatment. This new data lays the foundation for label expansion for the drug. Novartis is also exploring the use of RLTs to treat advanced lung, breast, pancreatic, and colon cancers.

Japan’s Takeda is betting big bucks on Californian biotech AcuraStem’s PIFFYVE-targeting approach to treating neurodegenerative diseases. The $580 million license agreement will see Takeda develop and commercialise AcuraStem’s AS-202 for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This particular target may also play a role in treating other neurodegenerative conditions like frontotemporal dementia.

Meanwhile, an update from Pakistan on its recall of Roche’s cancer drug Avastin. Pakistan is investigating two local distributors of the injectable after 12 diabetic patients lost their vision after receiving the medicine. Roche condemns the “criminal act of counterfeiting” and claims that authorities have identified this as a case of contamination by a third party supplier. The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) said that the suspected batches had been created illegally and in the cases concerned, Avastin had been used off-label to treat diabetes-associated eye conditions. The deputy drug controller of the state of Punjab, where these cases occurred, told Reuters that some companies purchase Avastin and repackage it in smaller doses to make it more affordable, especially as a sharp drop in Pakistan’s currency against the US dollar has made imported drugs that much more expensive.

Back in the dealmaking space, US-based Enovis has inked an €800 million (~$850 million) deal to acquire Italian orthopaedic implant manufacturer Lima. Enovis expects that Lima’s catalog, including 3D-printed titanium implants, will approach $300 million in sales by the end of next year.

And finally, India’s Strides Pharma is demerging its CDMO assets into an associate company called Stelis Biopharma. The new company will be called OneSource and will focus on specialty pharma including biologics, complex injectables, and soft gelatin capsules.