Pharma ad spending is concentrated at the top. A handful of health conditions – along with a handful of brands inside each condition – dominate industry advertising.

Five therapy areas accounted for almost half (43%) of all pharma DTC spending last year, according to deep dive research from MediaRadar. Diabetes led, followed by psoriasis, arthritis, HIV/AIDs and breast cancer. Diabetes took the top spot from arthritis, which was No. 1 in 2020.

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Remarkable advances in cell and gene therapy over the last decade offer unprecedented therapeutic promise and bring new hope for many patients facing diseases once thought incurable. However, for cell and gene therapies to reach their full potential, researchers, manufacturers, life science companies, and academics will need to work together to solve the significant challenges facing the industry.

Two months after Atara Biotherapeutics hit the hold button on its lead CAR-T 2.0 therapy following a patient death, putting the company under the watchful eye of the FDA, its Big Pharma partners at Bayer are bowing out of a $670 million global alliance. And the move is forcing a revamp of Atara’s pipeline plans, even as research execs vow to continue work on the two drugs allied with Bayer 18 months ago, which delivered a $60 million cash upfront.

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With atopic dermatitis rivals breathing down Dupixent’s neck, Sanofi and Regeneron on Friday secured a first win in new territory in what Sanofi’s head of immunology and inflammation Naimish Patel called the fastest approval he’s ever seen.

The FDA approved Dupixent on Friday to treat patients 12 years and older with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), an inflammatory condition that causes swelling and scarring of the esophagus. The approval came just a couple months after regulators granted Dupixent priority review, and months ahead of its PDUFA date on Aug. 3.

A Japanese conglomerate is making a big play in China with the opening of a new facility, as it continues to expand.

Fujifilm Irvine Scientific has opened its new Innovation and Collaboration Center in Suzhou New District, China, an area in Jiangsu province specifically designated for technological and industrial development.

According to Fujifilm, the 12,000-square-foot site will be responsible for the company’s cell culture media optimization, analysis and design services. Cell culture media itself often requires customization of formulas and protocols to achieve the desired quantity and quality of therapeutic desired. Fujifilm Irvine Scientific is offering these services from its headquarters in California and Japan to its customers globally, as well as in China now.

GSK enlisted ’80s child star turned director, writer and mom Soleil Moon Frye, known for her “Punky Brewster” character, during the pandemic last year to spotlight meningitis B vaccinations for teens. At the time, the already low rate for MenB vaccinations was dipping even lower.

Frye, a mother of four whose oldest child turned 16 during the launch of the campaign, talked about the fact that she didn’t know there were different types of meningitis vaccinations. The campaign was well received with feedback from parents that it was “effective, simple and actionable,” said Stephanie Jen, GSK’s VP of marketing for US vaccines.

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Just this week, the Senate voted 51-50 along party lines (with tie breaker from VP Kamala Harris) to make President Biden appointee Alvaro Bedoya the deciding vote on a split 2-2 Federal Trade Commission. And now that it is no longer split, a group of senators wants the commission to actually move forward on investigating pharmacy benefit managers.

Republican senators Chuck Grassley (IA) and Mike Braun (IN), alongside Democrat senator Ron Wyden (OR), submitted a letter to FTC chair Lina Khan earlier this week, after the commissioners remained deadlocked in a 2-2 vote in February to formally look into anti-competitive practices at the hands of PBMs.

At the beginning of the week, many people hadn’t ever heard of monkeypox. By Friday, that all changed — and now a handful of biotech companies are reaping the benefits.

Emergent Biosolutions’ $EBS stock jumped more than 10% on Friday, four days after the company plumped down $225 million for the rights to Chimerix’s smallpox vaccine. Chimerix’s stock $CMRX was up more than 3.8% on Friday. And Bavarian Nordic $BVNRY — which closed a $119 million deal with BARDA to provide the US government with freeze-dried doses of the Jynneos vaccine — was up nearly 2.5%.

The European Medicines Agency is recommending the suspension of about 100 drugs after finding data integrity issues at an India-based CRO that ran tests for the generic drugs.

The CRO in question, Synchron Research Services, isn’t the first to come under the microscope for data failings. The FDA and EMA have raised similar questions in the past regarding data findings from several India-based CROs, including Semler Research and GVK Biosciences. In the case of Semler, as in the case of Synchron, regulators are requiring the drug sponsors to repeat their bioequivalence/bioavailability studies at an acceptable alternate study site.

AbbVie is approaching the FDA with a new therapy to potentially treat Parkinson’s disease, using prodrugs of two medications commonly used for the condition.

The Big Pharma submitted its NDA for ABBV-951, a solution of levodopa and carbidopa prodrugs being evaluated in advanced Parkinson’s patients who don’t respond well to oral therapy, AbbVie announced Friday morning. Researchers are hoping a positive Phase III study that reads out in late October will help move things along quickly at the agency.

Bioscience & Technology Business Center The University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas

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