Cardiovascular
New ACC/AHA dyslipidemia treatment guidelines say prescribers should consider LDL cholesterol-lowering drugs’ costs, but Amgen and Esperion note the work they’ve done to ensure access to their products.
Newly published guidelines for treating dyslipidemia recommend testing for Lipoprotein(a), a cardiovascular disease risk factor with no treatments, but with multiple candidates in the clinic.
The guidelines give specific guidance about LDL cholesterol goals, recommending Esperion’s bempedoic acid and PCSK9 inhibitors from Amgen and Regeneron on top of statins in many cases, but evidence review concluded before Repatha’s primary prevention data.
Deal Snapshot: The firms will jointly select 15 novel targets against which Tenaya will identify and validate candidates that Alnylam may elect to license for further development
The spinout from Avidity hopes to pioneer precision therapy for genetic cardiomyopathy with siRNA delivery directly into heart muscle. Two lead candidates are nearing the clinic.
In its second deal this week alone, GSK has bought a pulmonary arterial hypertension drug with the acquisition of Canada’s 35Pharma for nearly $1bn.
Deal Snapshot: Eli Lilly is the latest big pharma player to explore the potential of interleukin-6 in an multi-million dollar agreement with troubled Australian firm CSL.
2026 has already seen some interesting late-stage trial readouts, from Sanofi’s anti-OX40L antibody, amlitelimab, in atopic dermatitis to Vertex’s APRIL/BAFF inhibitor, povetacicept, in IgA nephropathy. Here Scrip surveys of some of the more interesting Phase III clinical trials still to come.
Scrip spoke to global heads of research and early development for oncology, Dominik Ruettinger, and for cardiovascular/renal, Andrea Haegebarth, about Bayer’s strategic focus on precision medicines and key milestones for both therapeutic areas in 2026.
The UK-headquartered firm remains on track to hit $80bn in sales by 2030, but must still convince investors that it can be a major obesity market player in the following decade.
The company hopes to prove its RNAi platform is the most versatile and potent in cardiometabolic therapies in 2026 – and win one over on its long-standing rival, Ionis.
The co-principal investigator of OCEANIC-STROKE tells Scrip that the oral Factor XIa inhibitor could be paradigm-changing.
The blood cancer drug and the cholesterol lowerer will be major growth drivers through to 2020 and beyond.
Fund IV exclusively targets company creation and early-stage investing across the UK and the US.
While the biotech sector is optimistic once more, the annual conference did not bring a bounce to many companies.
The $172m acquisition will bring in Kylo-11, a Lp(a) inhibitor with potential once-yearly dosing, as well as other ultra long-acting siRNA candidates directed at APOC3, PCSK9 and other undisclosed targets in cardiovascular diseases.
CEO Vas Narasimhan told attendees at J.P. Morgan that the firm’s considerable financial firepower means it will continue to do “value-creating bolt-ons like you saw last year."
The CEO of Inno Medicine tells Scrip the Chinese company has developed a novel active-targeting nano-liposomal formulation to reverse coronary atherosclerosis plaque, which has yielded positive proof-of-concept Phase Ib/IIa results.
The acquisition signals growing belief in the NLRP3 inhibitor class, where companies are increasingly pursuing cardiometabolic and obesity studies alongside neurodegenerative trials.