SNY News & Events

Catch up on the weekend's top five stories with this list compiled by The Fly: 1) KKR (KKR) is working on a sale of CoolIT Systems, hoping to fetch a price tag in excess of $3B, Oliver Barnes and Antoine Gara of The Financial Times reports, citing people familiar with the matter. This is a massive increase from the unit's $270M valuation when KKR bought a majority stake in 2023. 2) Dr. Vinay Prasad, who issued several controversial decisions, including having refused to accept Moderna's (MRNA) application for a new mRNA flu vaccine and refused an application for a Huntington's drug's review from UniQure (QURE), is leaving the agency at the end of April, reported The New York Times' Christina Jewett on Friday evening, citing a Health and Human Services spokesman. Publicly traded large-cap drugmakers include AstraZeneca (AZN), Bristol Myers (BMY), Eli Lilly (LLY), GSK (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck (MRK), Novartis (NVS), Pfizer (PFE), Roche (RHHBY) and Sanofi (SNY). Biotech stocks that could be impacted by the news include Sarepta (SRPT), Xencor (XNCR), PTC Therapeutics (PTCT), Biohaven (BHVN), Edgewise Therapeutics (EWTX), Design Therapeutics (DSGN), Ultragenyx (RARE), Avidity Biosciences (RNA), Dyne Therapeutics (DYN), Wave Life Sciences (WVE), MeiraGTx (MGTX), uniQure (QURE), Regenxbio (RGNX), Moderna (MRNA), Novavax (NVAX) and Lexeo Therapeutics (LXEO). 3) Plug Power (PLUG) plans to offer hydrogen electricity, as much as 250 megawatts, in an auction President Donald Trump is eager to make happen later this year, Will Wade and Naureen Malik of Bloomberg reports, citing chairman Andy Marsh. PJM Interconnection, which is facing power shortages due to surging consumption by data centers to power AI, has been urged by the Trump administration to hold an emergency auction to bolster supplies. 4) Prudential (PRU) disclosed yesterday that on March 6, the Prudential Gibraltar Financial Life Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Prudential Financial, issued a press release in Japan reporting instances of the unauthorized removal of information by certain employees of PGFL seconded to financial institutions in Japan. The investigation confirmed that 11 employees in total removed 379 instances of information at seven contracted agencies. The removed information pertained to operational matters such as sales performance at the assigned agencies. "After confirming the content of all cases with the agencies, no issues were identified that would raise concerns under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, nor was there any inappropriate removal of contract information," Prudential Gibraltar Financial said. 5) Activist investor Starboard Value has built a stake in Lamb Weston (LW) and has been pushing to company to speed up improvements and cost cutting to boost stock performance, Lauren Thomas of The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. Starboard is now one of the largest shareholders in the company, the sources added.

Dr. Vinay Prasad, who issued several controversial decisions, including having refused to accept Moderna's (MRNA) application for a new mRNA flu vaccine and refused an application for a Huntington's drug's review from UniQure (QURE), is leaving the agency at the end of April, reported The New York Times' Christina Jewett on Friday evening, citing a Health and Human Services spokesman. Publicly traded large-cap drugmakers include AstraZeneca (AZN), Bristol Myers (BMY), Eli Lilly (LLY), GSK (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck (MRK), Novartis (NVS), Pfizer (PFE), Roche (RHHBY) and Sanofi (SNY). Biotech stocks that could be impacted by the news include Sarepta (SRPT), Xencor (XNCR), PTC Therapeutics (PTCT), Biohaven (BHVN), Edgewise Therapeutics (EWTX), Design Therapeutics (DSGN), Ultragenyx (RARE), Avidity Biosciences (RNA), Dyne Therapeutics (DYN), Wave Life Sciences (WVE), MeiraGTx (MGTX), uniQure (QURE), Regenxbio (RGNX), Moderna (MRNA), Novavax (NVAX) and Lexeo Therapeutics (LXEO).

Teva Pharmaceuticals, a U.S. affiliate of Teva (TEVA) and funds managed by Blackstone Life Sciences (BX) announced a $400M strategic funding agreement spread across four years to support the continued clinical development of duvakitug. Additionally, under the terms of the agreement, Blackstone Life Sciences will be eligible for regulatory and commercial milestones as well as royalties on duvakitug worldwide sales. Duvakitug is a human monoclonal antibody targeting TL1A, a promising target with the potential for broad therapeutic application across multiple indications. Under a separate and independent agreement announced in 2023, Teva is co-developing and, subject to regulatory approval, will be co-commercializing this asset with Sanofi (SNY). Duvakitug is currently in phase 3 clinical studies for the treatment of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Both companies recently announced phase 2b duvakitug maintenance data demonstrating clinically meaningful durable efficacy in ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Under the agreement, Blackstone Life Sciences will provide Teva $400M to fund ongoing and future development costs for duvakitug, spread over four years. As part of the funding arrangement and subject to the approval of duvakitug by the FDA, Teva will pay Blackstone Life Sciences a milestone payment. Blackstone Life Sciences will also be eligible to receive commercial milestones and low single-digit royalties on duvakitug worldwide sales, subject to customary terms and conditions.