Pfizer Says It’s Leaving BIO, In Major Blow To Pharmaceutical Trade Group

Stat: Pfizer Plans To Depart BIO 
Pfizer has decided to leave the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, according to two sources familiar with the planning. The departure is a blow to BIO, which represents members ranging from small biotech startups to massive pharmaceutical companies. It’s the latest instance in a growing trend of pharmaceutical companies re-evaluating their memberships in large trade groups following a historic lobbying loss when Democrats passed a new drug pricing reform law in August 2022. (Cohrs, 12/5)

Stat: BIO Selects John Crowley As New CEO 
The Biotechnology Innovation Organization has chosen longtime biotech executive and rare disease advocate John Crowley as its new CEO, the organization announced Tuesday. Crowley came to biotech when his children were diagnosed with a rare genetic neuromuscular disease. (Cohrs, 12/5)

On the weight-loss frenzy —

Reuters: Adherence To Weight-Loss Drugs Is Far Higher With Wegovy Than Older Medicines 
Forty percent of patients who filled a prescription for Novo Nordisk's (NOVOb.CO) Wegovy to treat obesity in 2021 or 2022 were still taking it a year later, more than three times the rate of adherence with older medicines, according to an analysis of medical records and insurance claims data. Only 13% of patients who started taking Contrave from Orexigen Therapeutics and 10% of those who started on Qsymia from Vivus between 2015 and 2022 were still filling their prescriptions a year later, researchers reported on Wednesday in the journal Obesity. (Lapid, 12/6)

CNBC: Eli Lilly Weight Loss Drug Zepbound Available At U.S. Pharmacies
Eli Lilly on Tuesday said its recently approved weight loss treatment Zepbound is now available at pharmacies across the U.S., serving as an alternative to rival obesity drugs such as Wegovy that are facing supply issues. Zepbound is the latest entrant to the budding weight loss drug market, which Wall Street expects to grow to about $100 billion by the end of the decade. (Constantino, 12/5)

Bloomberg: Can Ozempic, Wegovy Treat Alcoholism? For Big Pharma, It’s Not A Priority 
Every week, about two dozen patients come to a small room in Frederiksberg Hospital, a maze of old red-brick buildings in central Copenhagen. They are blindfolded and told to insert earphones with music. Then a nurse injects them with what they hope is the blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy. (Kresge and Muller, 12/6)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

The Boston Globe: Axcella Health To Close 
Axcella Health, a small biotech created by the venture firm Flagship Pioneering, is closing a year after the Cambridge firm laid off 85 percent of its workforce. Axcella on Monday disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that shareholders had voted to liquidate and dissolve the 12-year-old company, which was founded by Flagship, the creator of Moderna. (Saltzman, 12/5)

Stat: For Sickle Cell Patients, A CRISPR Cure Could Mean Infertility 
As a teenager, Marie Tornyenu was always having to explain herself. If it wasn’t the chronic absences that had her doing homework from a hospital bed, it was the quilted blanket she carried with her on the days she could attend class. “It was a running joke that I was like 80 years old,” she said. “I would usually just laugh it off because the alternative was too depressing.” Tornyenu was born with sickle cell disease. (Molteni, 12/6)

Bloomberg: Pharmaceutical Companies Inch Closer To Drugs Made In Space
Startup LambdaVision Inc. has big plans to develop the world’s first protein-based artificial retina for patients with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic cause of blindness. Manufacturing the retina involves depositing 200 paper-thin layers of a light-sensitive protein in a polymer mesh. The protein layers must be perfectly even for the retina to work properly, a process that’s hard to get right on Earth. (Langreth, 12/5)