Four U.S. lawmakers have asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Elon Musk committed securities fraud by allegedly misleading investors about the safety of a brain implant being developed by the billionaire’s firm Neuralink. Scrutiny over Neuralink’s handling of safety protocols comes as the company prepares to test the brain implant in humans for the first time, a critical milestone for the startup’s ambitions to help patients overcome paralysis and a host of neurological conditions. (Reuters)
Freeline Therapeutics agreed to be acquired by majority shareholder Syncona in a deal that values the clinical-stage biotechnology company at about $28.3 million. Syncona currently owns nearly 58% of Freeline, which said it expects the takeover to close in the first quarter of 2024. (MarketWatch)
Senate Health Committee Chair Bernie Sanders, (I-VT), announced that the CEOs of Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb have been asked to testify about why the U.S. pays the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. The senators will hold the hearing on Jan. 25 and focus their questions on why drug companies rack up billions in profits and pay executives “exorbitant” compensation packages, while as many as one out of every four Americans cannot afford their prescription drugs, Sanders said. (Endpoints News)
As cancer researchers expand the frontiers of their understanding of the basic science of cancer, biotech companies have used what they’ve already learned to mobilize the human immune system against cancer. Scientists are using artificial intelligence to identify mutations in cancerous tumors that the immune system can recognize, then creating personalized vaccines designed to prime a patient’s immune system to hunt them down and destroy them. (Newsweek)
Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, (D-Calif.), a longtime ally of Big Pharma, announced she will not seek reelection in 2024. Eshoo has held her Northern California seat for more than three decades. (The Washington Post)
See last Wednesday’s edition of Five things for pharma marketers to know.
