Key Points of Executive Speeches of 15 Pharmaceutical Giants at JPM Conference

Article source: Medical Cube Info

The annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference (JPM Conference) finally kicked off virtually last month amid concerns about omicron variants

MSD: Convinced that molnupiravir is very effective against the omicron variant!

In November last year, Merck announced that the COVID-19 oral antiviral drug molnupiravir was finally 30% effective in reducing the risk of hospitalization and death, a 20% drop from mid-trial data

At the conference, Dean Li, chairman of Merck Research Laboratories, said, "We are convinced that molnupiravir is very effective against omicron variants

Merck Chief Executive Rob Davis said, "We produced 10 million courses of this drug last year and plan to make 20 million courses this year

Davis said that based on the contracts signed, we believe this forecast is reasonable

Pfizer: Will develop a vaccine specifically for omicron by March

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said two doses of the coronavirus vaccine were "not enough" to provide adequate protection against the omicron variant

The company will have a vaccine specifically targeting omicron by March

Bourla said Pfizer plans to produce 120 million courses of Paxlovid next year

Takeda: Existing products can fully cope with the patent cliff of blockbuster products

Takeda isn't breaking a sweat when it comes to the blockbuster product losing patent protection

Meanwhile, the threat of biosimilars from Entyvio, a Takeda blockbuster for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, seems less urgent

Gilead: Long-acting HIV prevention drug could be approved in 2025

Gilead CEO Daniel O'Day said Gilead Sciences' HIV business won't slow down anytime soon

O'Day said lenacapavir is the "cornerstone" of the company's long-acting program in the treatment and prevention of HIV

Meanwhile, Gilead ushered in a new era in oncology

Regeneron: New crown cocktail therapy annual sales of $5.

The Regen-Cov therapy has been shown to lack efficacy against the omicron variant, but the company is busy working on a cocktail of other potential variants

Regeneron also said the company's macular degeneration drug Eylea had fourth-quarter U.
S.
sales of $1.
54 billion and full-year sales of $5.
79 billion, a solid increase from 2020 sales of $4.
95 billion
.
The company is currently evaluating higher doses of the product to provide patients with a treatment option with fewer injections
.

Johnson & Johnson: $60 billion drug sales target to be achieved by 2025

In a one-on-one interview with JPMorgan senior analyst Chris Schott, J&J's new CEO, Juaquin Duato, said J&J is preparing to spin off its consumer healthcare business later next year, after which he will continue to manage the three-piece business.
healthcare giant
.

In its pharmaceutical business, J&J is eyeing substantial growth over the next 10 years
.
J&J is targeting $60 billion in drug sales by 2025, boosted by new indications and new dosage forms for existing big brands like Darzalex and Tremfya, Duato said, $60 billion excluding any potential revenue from deal-acquisition sources
.

When it comes to upcoming products, Duato emphasized that five of them could reach or exceed $5 billion in peak sales
.
These include the CAR-T drug Carvykti in collaboration with Legend, the anti-FcRn monoclonal antibody nipocalimab, the lung cancer drug Rybrevant, the potential first-in-class oral XIa inhibitor milvexian and the potential bladder cancer treatment platform Taris
.
Duato said J&J expects greater growth in these drugs over the next five years
.

Moderna: An annual pan-respiratory booster vaccine will be available in 2022

Moderna said at the conference that it had raised its sales forecast for its COVID-19 vaccine to $18.
5 billion from $17 billion in 2022
.
Because the company recently signed contracts with the UK, Switzerland and South Korea to supply a coronavirus vaccine this fall
.

Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel also introduced the company's 2022 product strategy
.
The mRNA expert hopes to bring to market an annual pan-respiratory booster vaccine that protects against COVID, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus infections
.

Novartis: Rich! Continue to buy buy buy!

Novartis chief executive Vas Narasimhan said Novartis would continue to maintain a "balanced" capital allocation
.
The Swiss drugmaker, which recently sold its long-held stake in rival Roche for $20.
7 billion, is in the midst of a strategic review of its generics unit Sandoz, which could also deliver a big windfall
.
As a result, investors have repeatedly pressured Novartis management to update its capital allocation strategy
.

After selling Roche shares, Novartis unveiled a plan to buy back up to $15 billion in shares from investors by the end of 2023
.
The company has paid $800 million upfront to acquire Gyroscope Therapeutics, a British biotech company, for a gene therapy drug for eye diseases that is currently in Phase II research
.
Novartis received BeiGene's anti-TIGIT drug ociperlimab for an upfront payment of $300 million and a commitment to pay an option exercise fee of $700 million
.
The Swiss drugmaker on Monday announced a 150 million Swiss franc ($163 million) purchase agreement for Molecular Partners' COVID-19 antiviral drug ensovibep after seeing positive clinical data
.

BMS: 7 new products will be launched

On the eve of JPM 2019, BMS stole the show with a massive acquisition of Celgene
.
At the conference, BMS executives said that despite facing competition from generics and biosimilars, the company aims to grow by expanding its major branded products and advancing its pipeline
.
Executives said BMS' new product portfolio could generate $25 billion or more in revenue by 2029, while the company is planning to bring seven products to market in mid-to-late development stages
.

With Revlimid on the verge of losing exclusivity, BMS expects blockbusters such as Opdivo and Eliquis to remain active over the next few years with multi-billion-dollar sales growth through 2025, while their patent life spans this decade.
Coming later
.
Reblozyl, a first-in-class anemia treatment approved in 2020, could generate $4 billion in revenue by 2029 — although other contenders could emerge in the space
.

On the deal front, BMS said it plans to continue to look for small and medium-sized "strengthened" deals that could complement its pipeline
.
At the same time, the company is struggling to pay down debt and recently authorized a share repurchase program of up to $15 billion
.

AbbVie: Aesthetics business is booming

At the time of the Allergan acquisition, AbbVie didn't expect much of an aesthetics business from the deal, expecting roughly single-digit growth
.
Less than two years later, however, AbbVie was glad it was wrong and made an upward adjustment
.
The company currently expects its aesthetics franchise business to grow at a CAGR of around 10% through 2029
.

"Our original 2021 sales guidance for the aesthetics business was $4.
5 billion," said AbbVie President Michael Severino
.
"On the third-quarter conference call, we had revenue of $5.
1 billion, so we've seen huge room for growth
.
"

AbbVie expects sales of its aesthetics business to reach $9 billion by 2029
.

Lilly: GLP-1 runway is wide, runway is long

"The runway is wide, the runway is long," Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks said of the company's upcoming diabetes drug, GLP-1 receptor agonist tirzepatide
.
In the current state of treatment, namely "oral intolerance" and "before insulin therapy", the class is expected to grow incrementally "for a considerable period of time.

"

Meanwhile, Eli Lilly is "pretty optimistic" about GLP-1's potential to disrupt the weight management field
.
Tirzepatide is currently in the process of being approved for use in type 2 diabetes, but Eli Lilly is targeting obesity
.

Amgen: Biosimilar business becomes its own brand

Amgen already views its biosimilars business as an "industry-leading franchise," CEO Robert Bradway said
.
That's not without good reason, as the company has launched five biosimilars so far that have combined sales of about $2 billion in the first nine months of 2021
.
Revenue from this segment will more than double by 2030, Bradway said
.

Meanwhile, the company is on the verge of launching a blockbuster biosimilar, Amjevita, a Humira analog that is expected to debut in the U.
S.
on January 31, 2023
.

In terms of business development, "external innovation has been and will continue to be an important part of our strategy," Bradway said
.
Just this morning, Amgen invested $75 million in a partnership with Arrakis Therapeutics to develop targeted RNA degraders for difficult-to-drug targets
.

Roche: Targeting the early stages of cancer has a lot to do!

Bill Anderson, chief executive of Roche, said that a key strategy for Roche to develop cancer drugs is to target the disease at an early stage to achieve a potential therapeutic effect
.
The Swiss pharmaceutical company currently has nine Phase III clinical trials of PD-L1 inhibitor Tecentriq and ALK inhibitor Alecensa for perioperative treatment of early-stage tumors
.
Six of these are expected to have results in 2022
.

Tecentriq has received FDA approval for the postoperative adjuvant treatment of PD-L1-expressing stage II- to IIIA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
.
Doctors, however, said they would wait for more data on other PD-1/L1 inhibitors in so-called adjuvant therapy
.

Two days ago, Merck announced that the Phase III Keynote-091 study of Keytruda in adjuvant non-small cell lung cancer reached one of the two primary endpoints
.
In a larger group of stage IB-IIIA patients, the drug was superior to placebo in reducing the risk of disease recurrence or death, regardless of PD-L1 status
.
However, Keytruda did not show a statistically significant difference in patients with high PD-L1 expression, a population that has historically responded better to PD-1/L1 inhibition
.

Sanofi: Missed the opportunity, still working hard!

Although Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, the global vaccine giants, have not yet become the backbone of the vaccine supply for this new crown, the two partners are making steady progress in this field, said Thomas Triomphe, head of Sanofi's vaccine division
.

Both companies have submitted positive interim data for the booster and expect final data for the booster to be "good
.
" Meanwhile, Phase III efficacy data for primary vaccination against COVID-19 will be released in the first quarter of 2022
.

As for Sanofi's capital allocation and transaction priorities, Sanofi Chief Financial Officer Jean-Baptiste Chasseloup de Chatillon said the company wanted to build on its strengths
.
In the field of immunology, Sanofi aims to build industry-leading franchises
.

GSK: "Break up" is for better growth

After announcing last summer that it would break up its consumer healthcare group by mid-2022, GSK chief executive Emma Walmsley told the conference that the British pharma giant was ready for a "landmark year"
.
After the spin-off, GlaxoSmithKline's consumer healthcare group will become the world's largest integrated consumer healthcare company, with annual sales of 10 billion pounds ($13.
58 billion) and 23,000 employees worldwide
.
The independent company will sell 20 products with annual sales of more than £100 million, reaching consumers in 100 countries
.

As for profit growth remaining after the spin-off, the new GSK plans to achieve annual sales growth of 5% until 2026 and operating profit growth of more than 10% during this period
.
The pharma and vaccine-focused group is targeting annual revenue of 33 billion pounds ($44.
8 billion) by 2031
.
To get there, the company will be banking on strong growth in its vaccines and pharmaceuticals businesses
.