STAT+: Jazz Pharmaceuticals to acquire Chimerix and its experimental brain cancer drug

Jazz Pharmaceuticals said Wednesday it would spend nearly $1 billion to buy Chimerix and its experimental pill for a devastating brain tumor that primarily affects children and young adults.

The tumor, known as diffuse midline glioma, or DMG (and sometimes as DIPG depending on where it’s found), has flummoxed researchers for decades. It often wraps itself around a patient’s brain stem, preventing surgeons from safely excising it. It responds poorly to chemotherapy and is usually driven by a mutation that can’t be drugged with traditional approaches. Median survival is generally cited as less than a year. 

Chimerix’s drug, known as dordaviprone, isn’t a cure. But in a clinical trial presented last year, 14 out of 50 patients with relapsed disease saw their tumors shrink. Those responses lasted for a median of 10.4 months.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…