Blackstone wants in on red-hot immunology market

The need-to-know this morning

• Biogen and Ionis Pharmaceuticals are ending their development of an experimental drug for ALS based on results of a Phase 1/2 trial.
• Johnson & Johnson said it will acquire Proteologix, a privately-held biotech focused on immune-mediated diseases, for $850 million with potential for additional milestone payments.
• Novartis said it’s met all tender offer conditions to acquire German biotech Morphosys.

Roche shares up on early obesity results

The Swiss pharma company reported this morning that its recently acquired obesity drug led to a placebo-adjusted weight loss of 18.8% in a 24-week Phase 1 trial.

(For context, in Phase 3 trials lasting over a year, the difference in weight loss between Wegovy and placebo was 12.4 percentage points, and in the Zepbound trial, it was 17.8 percentage points. It’s difficult to compare across trials, though, especially across different development stages.)

The Roche drug, called CT-388, activates receptors of the GLP-1 and GIP hormones, utilizing a similar mechanism as Eli Lilly’s Zepbound. Roche got this asset in its $2.7 billion acquistion of Carmot Therapeutics last year.

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