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The need-to-know this morning
- AstraZeneca is spending $600 million upfront to pick up global rights for the lung cancer drug Zegfrovy from the Chinese firm Dizal Pharmaceutical Co. The drug, an EGFR inhibitor, is approved in the U.S. and China for patients with a type of advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer that has certain mutations, and is under review by regulatory agencies as a first-line therapy. AstraZeneca said the drug fit with its other products for EGFR-mutated lung cancer.
Akero team, backed by Fairmount, launches new immunology company
The former executive team of Akero Therapeutics, recently sold to Novo Nordisk, has partnered with the investment firm Fairmount, one of the sector’s most prolific company creators, to launch a publicly traded biotech centered around a long-acting immunology drug plucked from a Chinese firm.
The new company, called Avere Therapeutics, is led by Andrew Cheng, Kitty Yale, and William White, the team that ran Akero Therapeutics and developed a drug for the fatty liver disease MASH that was sold to Novo for $5 billion. Now, they will work to develop an oral IL-23 targeted drug for psoriasis, ulcerative colitis, and other immunological conditions.
