At yesterday’s STAT Breakthrough Summit East, Medicare chief Chris Klomp offered a tempered view of TrumpRx, and an MSK cell therapy expert warned that China’s more efficient regulatory system is allowing the country to outpace U.S. biotech.
Also, Novo Nordisk’s newly approved higher-dose Wegovy gives it a new catalyst as it tries to claw back market share with its obesity drugs. And the Broad Institute gets a new infusion of funding focused on understanding schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
The need-to-know this morning
- U.K. health officials reopened a review of two Alzheimer’s therapies — Eli Lilly’s Kisunla and Eisai and Biogen’s Leqembi — after previously finding they did not provide good therapeutic value for how much they cost.
- Novartis said it is buying an experimental breast cancer drug from Delaware-based Synnovation Therapeutics for $2 billion upfront.
- Rhythm Pharmaceuticals won expanded FDA approval for its drug Imcivree to treat acquired hypothalamic obesity, a rare disease characterized by accelerated and sustained weight gain caused by damage to the hypothalamus.
Chris Klomp, a senior HHS official, offered a notably restrained view of TrumpRx while speaking at the STAT Breakthrough Summit East yesterday. Although President Trump described the prescription drug platform “as transformative,” Klomp framed it instead as a limited, cash-pay tool rather than a systemwide fix for drug pricing.
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