STAT+: Pharmalittle: We're reading about 23andMe retrenching, AstraZeneca reworking cancer drug plans, and more

Top of the morning to you. And a fine one it is. Lots of sunshine and clear blue skies are once again enveloping the Pharmalot campus, where the official mascots are bounding about the grounds in search of creatures to annoy. As for us, we are as busy as ever hunting and gathering items of interest. We trust you have your own hectic agendas. So join us as we hoist the ever-present cup of stimulation — our choice today is coconut rum — and attack the fast-growing to-do list. Have a grand day, everyone, and do stay in touch. …

23andMe, the genetics startup that has repeatedly captured the public imagination and then faced nearly fatal business challenges, announced it would halt efforts to develop new medicines and lay off 40% of its workforce, focusing instead on selling genetic tests to consumers and using the resulting data for research, STAT writes. In closing its therapeutics division and laying off 200 people, 23andMe ended an audacious bet it made nearly a decade ago — that it could use the genetic data it had collected not only to assist drug companies but to become one itself. Over the course of this year, its stock has plummeted 72% and its market capitalization, which was $3.5 billion when it went public in 2021, is now just $111 million. 

AstraZeneca had to resubmit a closely watched medicine for U.S. approval in patients with a different form of lung cancer, a step that will delay its arrival on the market and add to questions about how widely it could be used, STAT tells us. The medicine, Dato-DXd, is a type of next-generation chemotherapy called an antibody-drug conjugate that AstraZeneca and other companies are investing in heavily. AstraZeneca, which is partnered with Daiichi Sankyo on the drug, has cited Dato-DXd as one of the products that will help it nearly double revenue to $80 billion by 2030. The companies filed for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in February for advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer, but instead have submitted a new application for Dato-DXd in patients with non-small cell lung cancer with a mutation in the EGFR gene. Meanwhile, the company did not provide many new details on investigations that employees are facing in China over allegations of medical insurance fraud, illegal drug importation, and personal information breaches. “We take the matters in China very seriously,” chief executive officer Pascal Soriot said in a statement. Finally, AstraZeneca plans to invest $3.5 billion to expand its R&D and manufacturing operations in the U.S. by 2026.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…