Ep. 9 - 8JUN2020
Jeff Cranmer: Welcome to BioCentury This Week. I'm Jeff Cranmer, Executive Editor of BioCentury and I'm joined by my colleagues,
[00:00:08] Steve Usdin: Steve Usdin, Washington Editor
[00:00:10] Simone Fishburn: Simone Fishburn Editor in Chief.
[00:00:13] Jeff Cranmer: We're going to talk today about some of the developments in the race to create countermeasures against the novel coronavirus, but first we're going to follow up on last week's conversation about biotech, IPOs and touch on rumors of M&A between two of the biggest COVID players out there. And also briefly touch on the BIO Digital Conference that kicks off today. Now on Friday. Simone and Steve, we saw three companies, price IPOs, and since then five more have set terms and three more have jumped into the IPO queue to bring the number to 20.
[00:00:50]Simone Fishburn: Jeff, I just want to ask about this because we've seen a lot of activity IPOs, a lot of secondary offerings. I think the secondary offerings might be different. How much of this do you think was in the works before COVID?
[00:01:04]Jeff Cranmer: I think a lot of it definitely had to be in the works before COVID. I think once COVID hit, I think a lot of companies hit pause to wait and see whether the markets would settle down.
[00:01:18] But at the back of everyone's mind, I think there's still a desire to get out before we launch into the full, throttle of the election season. So I think that's why we're seeing this bolus right now.
[00:01:31] Simone Fishburn: Well, that's such an interesting angle because that is the normal narrative for an election year. We previously thought it wasn't. So Steve, that brings up something I want to ask you about.
[00:01:41] People do want to get out before election season starts. Although I think the summer is normally what we think about, but this year, the election, how much is it really going to be about drug pricing? That's normally because the industry is taking a battering, and that would have been the narrative in any other year, but I'm not hearing anything about drug pricing.
[00:02:01] What do you hear?
[00:02:02] Steve Usdin: Well, actually people in Washington still are talking about it. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee has put out statements over the last week saying, remember me, remember drug pricing? It's still important. I still want to do this. He says that he brought it up personally with President Trump recently, and that he wants to get the Grassley-Wyden legislation passed. I think people are also looking at it and saying, look. If the Democrats take control of the Senate and the White House after the election, there's going to be action on drug pricing. There's no doubt about it. So yeah it's still in play, you know, the, the public and maybe investors tend to focus just on what's right in front of them, right in front of our faces. But, but drug pricing has the issues haven't gone away.
[00:02:46]Jeff Cranmer: Well, just to close off the thoughts on IPOs, what we saw last week was, four companies going public and raising over $800 million and that pushes this year's tally of life sciences IPOs to more than $6 billion. That outpaces the past two years, thanks to larger deals. Even as the pandemic has world markets around the globe.
[00:03:12]Now, when the weekend was winding down, Bloomberg had a very interesting report out last night that, suggested that, AstraZeneca might be interested in buying Foster City, California based Gilead Sciences. If this were true and it did go down, it would be the largest biopharma deal in history.
[00:03:35]Steve Usdin: It would also create the opportunity to create a name like GastroZenica or a Zilead.
[00:03:41] Simone Fishburn: I think it's got to have a Z in it. I think you got to have a Z there.
[00:03:44] Jeff Cranmer: You got to.
[00:03:44] Steve Usdin: Yeah, I go for GastroZenica but if not, Zilead.
[00:03:48] Simone Fishburn: Well, I think the other thing about this, and let's not talk about, cause we'll be covering that this week as well, everybody, is it going to happen? Isn't it going to happen? But you know, we had, Bristol buy Celgene, you know, you always gotta be looking at these large, what we call big biotechs, the Celgenes, the Amgen and so on, you know, are we going to see more mega mergers? Are they going to go around buying smaller companies and are we going to see more of these mega mergers?
[00:04:18] And that's obviously something we keep an eye on?
[00:04:21] Jeff Cranmer: Yes, it has certainly been a very, a quiet year so far for public company M&A, so we'll see how this one plays out. Certainly give people things to chat about as they watch the, digital presentations, at BIO's annual event, which kicks off today.
[00:04:40] Simone Fishburn: Nice segue there, Jeff, nice segue there.
[00:04:43] Jeff Cranmer: Well, it also marks the debut of the trade groups, new CEO, Michelle McMurry Heath. Steve, I know you spoke to her once or twice recently, any thoughts?
[00:04:54] Steve Usdin: Well, yeah, she's a superstar, it was very prescient, for them to pick her. And she, she really, I think I've talked about this before she represents a new direction for BIO.
[00:05:04] One of the things that people I think have missed, is that in addition to picking new leadership, the BIO board has decided to reframe the organization's mission. And, Michelle McMurry Heath is really perfect for that to focus exclusively really on innovation and on patients and to leave some of the other issues, that BIO has focused on the past, aside.
[00:05:29] The other thing I would say that was really interesting in talking about to Michelle, obviously look, this is happening the week after George Floyd's killing. The whole country is focused on the Black Lives Matter issue. McMurry Heath is African American and she's very passionate, she said something very interesting actually in the opening remarks at the bio meeting and in my conversation with her last week.
[00:05:51] Which I think is really important because people think about this and they think, well, what can I do? Or what can my company do? And what she emphasized and it's something that other, African American, biopharma leaders have emphasized is the importance of fellowship programs, mentorship programs, things that companies have done that have given opportunities to extraordinarily talented people like her. She said, you know, that really changed her life. And I think that's something that's really important to focus on.
[00:06:20] Simone Fishburn: And I want to make a point here and give a shout out to BIO because, you know, I, I've also been vociferous about, putting women, and diverse faces at the top, changing the iconography.
[00:06:32] And I've been in conversation, especially with the people on the selection committee. And I have to credit them. BIO has had a program for diversity, but it's not just in name only. This is a really influential position and they have appointed an African American female who is highly, highly qualified.
[00:06:49] And I really do think it's important for companies to not just go to the default people they know, but to find people who represent a broader mix. And it's great for them to have somebody who can speak with authority on how companies should address what I think. And I know Steve thinks is a really, really critical issue for businesses also to address.
[00:07:07] Steve Usdin: Yeah, it's really the key issue. You know, not only of the moment, but one of the things that Michelle McMurry Heath emphasized to me when I spoke with her and also when I spoke with, Tony Coles and Ted Love this week is the importance of continuity. You know, this shouldn't just be the issue of the week and the next week companies and individuals think about something else.
[00:07:29]And Michelle actually said something that was really powerful to me. I asked her, I said, well, Isn't there the tendency to just move on, do people think about this in the short term, take some actions and then something else is top of mind next week. And she said, yeah, but for people, like for me, Michelle said for herself, you know, she said, I can never not think about this.
[00:07:51]And that really kind of struck me. And I think it's something that is going to require continuous action and continuous attention.
[00:07:59]Simone Fishburn: One postscript to that, which is that, you know, it's not a given that people believe that businesses have a role to play in the social equity. We have had some people express the opinion that it's not the place anymore than it was for the business round table to right social wrongs as it were. But I personally, and this is personal, was gratified to see how many pharma companies were among the ones making statements and going out and you know, a statement isn't enough, I agree, Steve, but a statement is better than silence.
[00:08:33] Steve Usdin: Yeah. And I think that this is one of these issues that combines the personal and the political and the practical for companies. It personally, strikes many of the, biopharma CEOs. It's unfortunately, also political and it's practical because if these companies are going to have the respect, of the people of their own employees and of their customers, and of society, which they need to operate, then they need to step up to the plate here.
[00:09:05] Anyway, as you said, that's, that's my personal opinion on it.
[00:09:08]Jeff Cranmer: Well, thanks guys, that's exciting to hear and I'm really looking forward to, the new direction that BIO is taking.
[00:09:15] Now, also on the agenda, of course we can't forget about the pandemic, BioCentury's COVID-19 Resource Center is now tracking 562 therapies and vaccines in development.
[00:09:29]So Simone, obviously a ton of things in development and our colleague, Selina Koch has been watching all this very closely and she reports that between now and the end of summer, more than 200 trials will read out.
[00:09:46] Are there any, programs. In particular that you're watching. Are there any classes that you think have a better chance of succeeding?
[00:09:56] Simone Fishburn: Yes. Jeff so you know, Steve is on my case to tell everybody which are the ones to watch, and I can do that to some degree, but I think that there are also some bigger picture ones.
[00:10:04] So first of all, by the end of the summer, we are going to have readouts from eight vaccines. Two have already, started to yield results Moderna and CanSino with early results, demonstrating their vaccines had produced virus, neutralizing antibodies in healthy volunteers. But another six, are going to start yielding information by the end of the summer.
[00:10:30]We should have more from Moderna, we should have another RNA vaccine from BioNTech and Pfizer, a DNA vaccine from Innovio. And of course, a principle one to watch is the much talked about Oxford's now AstraZeneca's Vaccine, which should read out single dose and two doses. And that should read out by the end of the month, actually.
[00:10:52] And I think there's a few other interesting things to look at. And the way I'm thinking about it is that by the end of the summer, we will be able to have a clearer picture of what approaches maybe not, which compound will make it, but what approaches will make it. So for example, there are 18 trials with convalescent plasma. I can't specifically pick out one, but out of 18 trials of convalescent plasma, hopefully by the end of the summer, we can know how useful that approach will be.
[00:11:24] Steve Usdin: The thing about the convalescent plasma, that's going to be really interesting is it's not only going to tell us whether that approach works, but I think it's also going to give us a read through as to whether monoclonal antibodies are likely to work. And, it'll even give some hints about vaccine efficacy.
[00:11:41] Simone Fishburn: Right and I think you're right, Steve, in that it gets at this issue of whether the immunity provided by exposure is actually protective. And, so I think that that is an important take home we'll get from it. I think, there's another angle, which is a lot of trials on immunosuppressants. And these are obviously trying to address the later stage of the disease. And so we have a whole bunch of IL-6 studies, toclizumab is an important one to watch. Johns Hopkins, NYU Langone and J&J and Sanofi have these as a TNF alpha. So many of these are going to read out. I don't have the exact number right now, actually.
[00:12:20]But I think one thing is important is that for example, we've already seen with the IL-1 inhibitors, you can get differing results. And that's why I focus on the numbers. So one, early results from, Regeneron Kevzara didn't show, any notable benefit, but Actemra from Genentech the Genentech, unit of Roche that produced quite a significant reduction in the composite primary endpoint for ventilation or death at day 14 against placebo.
[00:12:46] So a lot of it is going to depend on how the trial was set up, when the intervention was. One last note on this related to the monoclonal antibodies, those are going into the clinic this summer, so hopefully we'll start to get data from those. They include Lilly's and VIR's, which is partnered with GSK and Regeneron's and importantly, no conversation would be complete if we didn't talk about chloroquine and hydroxy chloroquine. And all I'm going to say is that there are 60 trials that are due to read out by the end of the summer. So if there's a "there" there, hopefully we will see it. And if not, maybe we can draw a line under that.
[00:13:25]Jeff Cranmer: Excellent. Well, that's it for this week, Steve and Simone, thanks so much for the chat. All of BioCentury's coverage is available at biocentury.com. Our Coronavirus coverage is available in front of the paywall at biocentury.com/coronavirus. And our podcasts are available on our website and via Spotify, Stitcher, Apple, and Google.