By admin 
This story first appeared in the Readout newsletter. Register for The Reading and receive STAT’s award-winning biotech news straight to your inbox.
Hello! Today we note the antagonism between gene editing players Prime Medicine and Tessera Therapeutics, consider whether the label should be updated for a Merck drug, and more.
What you need to know this morning
- Monte Rosa therapies one announced license agreement of Novartis for an experimental drug called a “molecular glue degrader” being developed for immune-related diseases. Monte Rosa received $150 million from Novartis for global licensing rights to the Phase 1 drug, MRT-6160, and is eligible for an additional $2.1 billion in future payments.
- AbVie said it is so acquire private property Aliada Therapeutics for $1.4 billion. Aliada is developing early-stage drugs for Alzheimer’s disease with technology that helps the drugs cross the blood-brain barrier.
A biotech veteran is back and leading a new cancer startup
It’s been less than a year since Pfizer closed the $43 billion acquisition of Seagen – but Seagen CEO David Epstein is back with a new company.
That company, Ottimo Pharma, was launched today with the aim of developing a drug that could work on different types of cancer. Specifically, the company is working on a dual antibody, jankistomig, that targets the PD-1 and VEGF proteins on cancer cells. Ottimo hopes to launch phase 1 studies next year, hoping this could attract an acquisition.
“When something truly unusual comes your way, not just another drug, but something that could fundamentally change the standard of care for patients… it became very exciting the challenge of putting together a top team that could bring this drug to bring the clinic,” Epstein told STAT’s Andrew Joseph.
Read more.
Prime vs. Tessera: A feud arises over gene editing
A fierce rivalry is brewing between gene editing companies Prime Medicine and Tessera Therapeutics: Prime Chief Scientific Officer Jeremy Duffield publicly suggested late last week that Tessera’s approach is essentially Prime’s editing approach in disguise.
Prime Medicine, which emerged from David Liu’s laboratory at the Broad Institute, has proprietary technology that enables single-letter changes in DNA. Tessera, backed by Flagship Pioneering, has meanwhile remained vaguer about what exactly it does, writes STAT’s Jason Mast. It claims its method, which relies on mobile genetic elements and targeted reverse transcription, is unique and based on a 2018 patent. But critics say Tessera only produced results comparable to those of Liu’s team when a patent was filed requested after his 2019 paper.
Read more.
Patient advocates are raising concerns about the Merck drug
The antifungal drug posaconazole, used in cancer patients, has a longer half-life in obese people, which may affect the effectiveness of chemotherapeutics. But Merck, the original maker, has not updated the product label to reflect this reality, patient advocates say.
As a result, many doctors are in the dark about the issue, they told STAT’s Ed Silverman. However, the company says the drug interactions associated with posaconazole are “currently well described in the drug labeling.”
Beyond an obvious concern for patients, the episode underlines how regulatory deadlocks can arise when it comes to product labeling. Additionally, the case highlights a lack of clinical research into the effects that many medications can have on people with obesity.
Read more.
The ethics of blood testing in early Alzheimer’s
Developing blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease is transforming early detection and treatment – as diagnosticians have traditionally relied on MRIs and PET scans. The new battery of tests detects amyloid plaques and tau tangles — with a diagnostic accuracy of 85% to 90% — but its use in asymptomatic people raises some serious ethical and clinical questions, UCSF researchers Naveen Reddy and Kristine Yaffe say.
“Universal testing could lead to earlier interventions and better outcomes for some, but it also increases the risk of overdiagnosis and overtreatment,” they write in a new First Opinion. “Widespread adoption of these tests could in turn strain healthcare resources, potentially diverting attention from other critical areas.”
Read more.
Read more
- Pfizer’s activist battle might fail, but the stock probably won’t. Wall Street Journal
- Revolution Medicines is breaking new ground in the fight against pancreatic cancer with two RAS drugs, Endpoints
- FDA Approves Iterum’s Treatment for Urinary Tract Infection Reuters