Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Mark Cuban Unveils Plan To Build Dallas Factory For New Drug Company
Dallas Morning News: Generic Drug Company Backed By Mark Cuban Files To Build $11 Million Manufacturing Plant In Deep Ellum
The new Dallas-based affordable generic drug company bearing Mark Cuban’s name has filed to build an $11 million drug-manufacturing facility in Deep Ellum. The privately funded 22,000-square-foot facility will be created through a remodeling of the existing building at 302 S. Walton St. and will be designed by Jacobs architects, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Construction is set to begin Wednesday. Cuban mentioned on a podcast in November that he was working to turn a building he owned in the neighborhood east of downtown Dallas into a manufacturing facility for the company. Founder Alex Oshmyansky confirmed that the facility is expected to be completed in 2022. (DiFurio, 2/5)
In other pharmaceutical industry news —
Stat: FDA Blasts Merck's Keytruda Data For New Breast Cancer Indication
Merck (MRK) may have readily turned its Keytruda cancer drug into a medical and financial juggernaut, but its bid to win regulatory approval for at least one additional use may not come so easily, judging by documents from the Food and Drug Administration. (Silverman, 2/5)
Stat: How A Journal's Censure Inflamed Debate Over Biogen's Alzheimer's Drug
A science journal owned by the Alzheimer’s Association punished a trio of leading researchers after they published a stinging rebuke of Biogen’s controversial treatment aducanumab — a drug that the powerful advocacy group is lobbying regulators to approve. (Garde and Feuerstein, 2/8)
Stat: What 23andMe's Filing To Go Public Says About The Big Genetics Business
It seemed a foregone conclusion: Despite the early popularity of companies offering health and ancestry insights for the cost of roughly $200 — and the brief but awkward experience of spitting into a tube — the consumer genetics industry was not going to thrive. Privacy concerns took center stage. Sales declined. Profits never materialized. (Brodwin and Palmer, 2/5)
In obituaries —
The New York Times: Emil Freireich, Groundbreaking Cancer Researcher, Dies At 93
Dr. Emil Freireich, a relentless cancer doctor and researcher who helped devise treatments for childhood leukemia that dramatically transformed the lives of patients thought to have little hope of survival, died on Feb. 1 at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where he had worked since 1965. He was 93. His death was confirmed by his daughter Debra Ann Freireich-Bier. The hospital said he had tested positive for Covid-19 but it has not yet been determined as the cause of death. (Sandomir, 2/7)
