STAT+: A journey to witness China’s biotech boom up close

Want to stay on top of the science and politics driving biotech today? Sign up to get our biotech newsletter in your inbox. I am newly enamored with Hans Zinsser, a Harvard bacteriologist who in 1935 wrote “Rats, Lice and History,” a rather charming “biography” of typhus. Got it for a buck at an estate sale. Favorite line: “there is no arsphenamin for the psychic treponema” — which, in context, basically means, “pretension has no cure.” He’s the Oscar Wilde of infectious disease, I’m telling you. Or, like, Damian. The need-to-know this morning Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, the duo behind the hugely successful drug Dupixent, are re-upping their partnership, with the companies announcing an expanded collaboration on a new series of antibodies for immunological diseases. A journey to witness China’s biotech boom up close It’s no secret that China’s biotech industry is increasingly setting the pace for science. But STAT’s Jason Mast traveled to Shanghai to get an up-close look at the competition that’s making Americans nervous. There, at Jefferies’ first life sciences conference in China, executives boasted about developing drugs faster and cheaper than their American counterparts. They walked through their pipelines in English, as local Mandarin-speaking representatives from hulking multinationals like GSK, Merck, and Sanofi roamed the halls, scouting potential prospects between bites of duck sandwiches and dragonfruit. Chinese-designed drugs now account for roughly half the global pipeline and more than half the potential value of licensing and collaboration deals — and Morgan Stanley projects they could represent 35% of FDA approvals by 2030. “The best minds will all go there,” one China-focused investment banker told STAT. “Because the big pharma senior R&D guys are there, the general perception is, OK, ‘I might have the infrastructure, CRO work, whatever here but I still want my CSO to be in Kendall Square.’” Read more. HHS wants AI to reinvent clinical trials HHS announced yesterday that it is launching a new five-year effort to speed up clinical trials by using artificial intelligence, computational modeling, and more flexible study designs that blur the traditional boundaries between trial phases. The ARPA-H program, dubbed SURPASS, will solicit ideas from teams from the realms of statistics, AI, clinical trial operations, and regulation. Neurodegenerative diseases of particular interest, STAT’s Margaret Manto writes. The idea is to perhaps gradually replace some human control group data with in silico information — and develop AI systems that could streamline trial operations. HHS also announced initiatives to expand the number of clinical trial sites, build a national research data resource, and let patients contribute their own data. The details — including how much money is behind the effort — remain fuzzy. Read more. Can Eric Cantor fix PhRMA’s woes in Washington? Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader, is taking over PhRMA at a challenging moment for the drug industry, STAT’s Daniel Payne writes. Among other things, populist anger over medicine prices has scrambled the old political alliances that once made Republicans reliable allies of pharma. Cantor built a reputation as a savvy GOP strategist before a stunning primary defeat in 2014. Now, he’ll have to navigate President Trump’s push to strongarm drugmakers into lowering prices. Democrats, meanwhile, plan to approach the industry with scrutiny of their own. Cantor’s bipartisan relationships and dealmaking experience make him well suited to the job, many industry folk say. But there’s a certain irony here. Cantor will be defending drugmakers against a populist backlash — the same force that ended his congressional run. Read more. A Huntington’s patient isn’t fazed by new UniQure data When UniQure released data this week showing its gene therapy for Huntington’s disease slowed progression of the condition after four years by 44%, down sharply from 75% at three years, its stock tank. At least one patient took another view. “This isn’t a cure,” advocate Lauren Holder, who is living with early-stage disease, told STAT’s Adam Feuerstein, explaining why she was not discouraged by the latest data on AMT-130. To her, even a few years of substantially slower decline would mean precious additional time with quality of life. But Holder is far less sanguine about UniQure’s proposed confirmatory study, which would randomize roughly 200 Huntington’s patients to AMT-130 or standard treatment for three years if the gene therapy wins accelerated approval. Holder called that design “not ethical,” arguing that patients assigned to the control group would lose years without an effective treatment while also being unable to join other research. Read more. More reads Eli Lilly’s Zepbound combined with amylin drug led to significant weight loss in mid-stage trial, STAT Invivyd’s pursuit of a Covid vaccine alternative gets a lift, but an FDA hurdle may await, STAT Trump’s watered-down Medicare drug pricing rule saves 96% less than initial proposal, STAT