STAT+: Pharmalittle: We're reading about a cancer therapy's gold rush, FDA warning Sanofi, and more news

Hello, everyone, and how are you today? We are doing just fine, thank you, especially since the middle of the week is upon us. After all, we have made it this far so we are determined to hang on for another couple of days. And why not? The alternatives — at least those we can identify — are not so appetizing. And what better way to make the time fly than to keep busy. So grab that cup of stimulation and get started. Our flavor today is pistachio creme — sweets for the sweet, you know? This is particularly welcome, given the frigid temperatures enveloping the Pharmalot campus. Now, though, it is time to get cracking. So here is our menu of tidbits to help you get started. We hope you have a lovely day, and do keep in touch. The missives you send are always inspiring….

A Belgian court dismissed a lawsuit against European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen centered on text messages she exchanged with the Pfizer chief executive officer during negotiations for Covid shots, Agence France-Presse reports. A source close to the case confirmed that the appeals court “declared inadmissible” a set of complaints brought in 2023 by Belgian former lobbyist Frederic Baldan, as he could not prove suffering “personal harm.” The court “found the complainants wrong across the board,” von der Leyen’s lawyer Adrien Masset told AFP. The EU moved swiftly after the Covid pandemic emerged in 2020 to secure vaccines for member countries to buy for their citizens and residents, but many aspects of the procurement from Pfizer have been kept confidential, leading to claims of a lack of transparency and several legal proceedings. Last year Baldan, who argued that von der Leyen both overstepped her role and violated the European Commission code of conduct, lost a similar lawsuit in Brussels. Another complaint filed by The New York Times against the commission for failing to release the texts despite a freedom of information request is being heard by the Court of Justice of the European Union.

A new class of drugs may be emerging to challenge the dominance of the first generation checkpoint inhibitors, such as Merck’s Keytruda, which has been used to combat dozens of different cancers in millions of patients, making it the top-selling drug in the world, STAT explains. Experts say a certain type of bispecific antibody seems to have hit upon a crucial combination of two cancer targets: the proteins VEGF and either PD-1 or PD-L1. There has been a surge of interest in these compounds from biotech and pharma in the last few months, spurred on most by the presentation of promising clinical data from Summit Therapeutics. In September, the company presented data showing its PD-1 and VEGF bispecific outperformed Keytruda in a Phase 3 clinical trial in advanced lung cancer patients. And in December, BioNTech showed promising early-phase data in its PD-L1 and VEGF bispecific in breast cancer.

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