
5 Things From the 36th Annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference
This week, the investors and analysts turned their attention to presentations by business leaders at the 36th Annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, held in San Francisco, California. Executives from the pharmaceutical and healthcare worlds showcased their products, pipelines, and visions for the future.
This week, the investors and analysts turned their attention to presentations by business leaders at the 36th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, held in San Francisco, California. Executives from the pharmaceutical and healthcare worlds showcased their products, pipelines, and visions for the future.
1. More biosimilars are on the horizon
Drug developer Amgen, which has already secured FDA approvals for its biosimilars of blockbuster drugs Humira and Avastin,
Rajiv Malik, president of Mylan, hinted that his company’s biosimilar of the neutropenia drug Neulasta could be approved by the FDA as early as the middle of 2018, while Coherus’ CEO, Dennis Lanfear, said that Coherus’ version of Neulasta could be approved by the third quarter of the year.
2. The wave of oncoming biosimilars can help make room for high-cost therapies
Tim Wentworth, president and CEO of Express Scripts,
“The Sparks product has 2200 patients—we have to figure out how to pay for it,” Wentworth said. “Biosimilars have the key to unlocking that.”
3. Treatments for inflammatory diseases are evolving
Even as drug developers and payers look for cheaper alternatives to brand-name biologics like Humira, the treatment of inflammatory diseases appears to be shifting away from such older biologics and toward therapies with new methods of action. Drug maker AbbVie expects that its orally administered Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor drug upadacitinib could launched in 6 inflammatory indications by 2022, beginning with an indication in rheumatoid arthritis in 2019. Similarly, AbbVie’s risankizumab, which targets inleukin-23, is expected to launch in 4 indications by 2023, beginning with an indication in psoriatic arthritis in 2019. Pfizer
4. New treatments for diabetes are also in the pipeline
Olivier Brandicourt, CEO of Sanofi, highlighted his company’s work on sotagliflozin for the treatment of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The company sees sotagliflozin as highly promising based on positive data showing weight reduction, improved time in range in type 1 diabetes, strong glycated hemoglobin reduction, and reduction in the number postprandial glucose excursions, with no increase in hypoglycemia.
5. The private sector has a key role to play in healthcare research
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and co-chair and trustee of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
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