Ep. 300 - Biotech’s $13B Deal Day, ASCO's Hot Targets, Drug Pricing Threat

Dealmaking by a pair of pharmas has given the biotech industry its best day of transactions in months, tallying nearly $13 billion in guaranteed payments across two deals. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts discuss how the takeout of Blueprint Medicines for $9.1 billion up front gives Sanofi a drug for a rare immunological disorder and bolsters the French pharma’s already strong presence in immunology. The analysts also assess the $3.5 billion partnership between BioNTech and Bristol Myers Squibb for an asset targeting cancer’s hottest target, PD-(L)1 x VEGF, and underwhelming data from the leading asset against the target, PD-1 x VEGF bispecific ivonescimab, from Summit and Akeso Inc. Those data coincided with the kick-off of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, where almost a dozen companies were presenting readouts for another hot target, CLDN18.2. Evopoint is among the companies; its program recently attracted Astellas as a partner. Meanwhile, the biopharma industry is racing to counter the White House’s most favored nation drug pricing strategy. BioCentury’s Washington analyst, Steve Usdin, explains the urgency and details some of industry’s options.View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/656097#biotech #biopharma #pharma #lifescience #deals00:00 - Introduction04:39 - Sanofi Buys Blueprint09:22 - BMS-BioNTech20:01 - Hot Targets23:40 - Drug PricingTo submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected] us by sending a text