Look back at pharma news to Oct 6

Eliciting comment last week was news that a US judge had reversed an earlier ban on the marketing of cholesterol treatment Praluent in a long-running court battle between Amgen and the drug’s makers – Regeneron and Sanofi and ordering a re-trial. Also attracting attention was mid-stage data on Capricor Therapeutics’ Duchenne muscular dystrophy agent CAP-1002; strong Phase III results with Zogenix’ rare epilepsy drug candidate ZX008; and positive results for Ablynx’ rare blood disorder candidate caplacizumab.

Regeneron and Sanofi get a reprieve on Praluent

There has been some news involving the newest entrants in cholesterol-lowering drugs, the PCSK9 inhibitors, or PCSK9is. The market leader, Repatha from Amgen generated $83 million in revenue in second quarter, up sharply year-on-year from $27 million, noted blogger DoctoRx on Seeking Alpha. The other PCSK9i, Praluent, was developed by Regeneron and its partner French pharma major Sanofi which books the revenues; the parties share losses (right now) and profits, if any, on terms in which Sanofi is the somewhat more dominant party financially. Revenues from Praluent were $46 million in the second quarter of 2017, up nicely y-o-y from $24 million.