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Hi all. Today we’re talking about improving the global reach of gene therapies, and about why offering access to ancestral populations could be so powerful. We see in a KFF survey that a majority of Americans want obesity drugs to be covered by Medicare, offer up a cool new podcast, and more.
The need-to-know this morning
- Sanofi reached a licensing deal to sell Novavax’s Covid shot going forward as well as to try to combine the vaccine with Sanofi’s own flu shot. The pact includes a $500 million upfront payment, with up to $700 million in future payments if regulatory and launch milestones are achieved.
- Maze Therapeutics and the Japanese drugmaker Shionogi announced a global licensing deal for Maze’s experimental treatment for Pompe disease. The transaction, which includes a $150 million payment from Shionogi to Maze, was completed months after a Sanofi partnership for the same Maze drug was terminated due to opposition from U.S. antitrust regulators.
Improving global access to gene therapies
Gene therapies can be potent, but they’re really only available to a narrow slice of the global populace. Some scientists are looking at ways to broaden access around the world to these costly treatments; earlier this week, a Science Translational Medicine editorial outlined the challenges to making it all happen.
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