Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Novo Nordisk To Build Second US Factory To Meet Ozempic Demand
Bloomberg: Ozempic Maker Novo Plans Another $4.1 Billion US Factory
Novo Nordisk A/S plans to invest $4.1 billion in another US factory, plowing more money into its biggest market amid rising discontent over the cost of its obesity and diabetes drugs. The project in Clayton, North Carolina, will double the company’s production footprint in the US, adding 1.4 million square feet of space for the final stages of manufacturing in which Novo’s medicines are filled into injector pens and prepared for consumers. The facility will add 1,000 jobs, the Danish drugmaker said Monday. (Kresge, 6/24)
Reuters: Teva Launches Generic Version Of Novo Nordisk's Diabetes Drug Victoza
Teva Pharmaceuticals said on Monday it had launched a generic version of Novo Nordisk's Victoza to treat patients with type 2 diabetes, making it the first generic GLP-1 drug in the United States where the drug class has seen overwhelming demand. (6/24)
Stat: Will Lilly’s Zepbound Make CPAP Machines Obsolete? Experts Split
Continuous positive airway pressure “is here to stay,” sleep medicine doctor Atul Malhotra declared in a May 2024 editorial published in the Lancet. But after Eli Lilly reported the full results of its obesity drug in sleep apnea patients last week, industry watchers are now debating the lasting power of CPAP machines. The trial, run by Malhotra himself, demonstrated that Zepbound reduced the number of sleep apnea episodes in patients both who were using the machines and those who were not. (Lawrence and Chen, 6/25)
In other pharmaceutical news —
Fox News: For Diabetes Patients, Inhaled Insulin Is Shown Just As Effective As Injections And Pumps
Most of the 38 million people living with diabetes in the U.S. use daily injections or insulin pumps to keep glucose at safe levels — but new research suggests that a third option could be just as effective. In a study led by Dr. Irl B. Hirsch, M.D., medical director of the Diabetes Care Center of the University of Washington Medical Center, an inhaled form of insulin — similar to an asthma inhaler — worked just as well as injections or pumps to control type 1 diabetes. (Rudy, 6/25)
The Wall Street Journal: Merck Shares Drop 10% As Pharma Giant Scraps Trial Of Promising Cancer Drug
The New Jersey company said late on Monday that it had discontinued its Phase III TrilynX trial of Xevinapant in patients with head and neck cancer after an analysis by an independent panel concluded the drug would be unlikely to meet its primary goal of extending event-free survival in participants. (Goss, 6/25)
Bloomberg: Rite Aid Wins $200 Million Dispute Over Elixir Sale To MedImpact
Rite Aid Corp. isn’t responsible for more than $200 million in extra costs tied to the recent acquisition of its pharmacy benefit manager Elixir by MedImpact Healthcare Systems Inc., a judge ruled MondayJudge Michael Kaplan said during a hearing in New Jersey bankruptcy court that the underlying Elixir sale agreement makes MedImpact responsible for the disputed liabilities, which include millions of dollars in unpaid reimbursements owed to CVS Health Corp., Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and Walmart Inc. (Randles, 6/24)
The Baltimore Sun: Emergent BioSolutions To Sell Camden Manufacturing Plant
Beleaguered pharmaceutical company Emergent BioSolutions — which, early into the pandemic, threw out coronavirus vaccine doses manufactured in East Baltimore due to lapses in quality — is selling its last major plant in the city. (Roberts, 6/21)
Stat: Former Moderna Executive Launches Genome Editing Company
As chief medical officer of Moderna, Tal Zaks used to be skeptical of genome editing. Why repair a patient’s broken gene, he would ask, with all the havoc CRISPR can wreak on DNA, when a company like Moderna can just replace that gene with regular, transient doses of mRNA? (One reason: Moderna was having immense difficulty doing just that.) (Mast, 6/25)
