Merck dropped a combination of Keytruda along with immunotherapy vibostolimab for skin cancer, as side effects led to patients discontinuing the treatment. It marks a setback for the type of immunotherapy, part of a class called anti-TIGIT. (Reuters)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will monitor wastewater to track the spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus, due to reluctance among farmers to report outbreaks. The agency plans to launch a public dashboard that tracks influenza A viruses – which include H151 – in wastewater. (STAT)
Cytokinetics released Phase 3 data on its rare heart disease drug, aficamten, showing it “significantly improved” exercise capacity compared to placebo in patients with symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The results suggest the drug, if approved, may be set up to match Bristol Myers Squibb’s Camzyos. (Yahoo! Finance)
Sanofi, Pfizer and AstraZeneca separately pledged to increase their respective footprints in France, with investments adding up to almost €2 billion. The big pharma announcements are a part of a much larger €15 billion investment from various companies in different industries, as the foreign direct investment summit dubbed Choose France kicked off. (Endpoints News)
The Wall Street Journal debuted the “Trillion Dollar Shot” podcast series unpacking the GLP-1 revolution. Before Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound, there was Lotte Bjerre Knudsen. (The Wall Street Journal)
Click here to view yesterday’s Five things for pharma marketers to know.
