We’re reading about Roche antibiotic, a gene therapy patient death

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another working week. We hope the weekend respite — which was longer than usual on our side of the pond, thanks to a holiday — was relaxing and invigorating. Now, though, that oh-so-familiar routine of meetings, deadlines, and messages has returned. But what can you do? There is no pause button to stop the world from spinning. So this means one thing: time to dig in to the tasks at hand. On that note, we have assembled a menu of tidbits to help you get started. Meanwhile, we have also fired up the coffee kettle for another cup of stimulation. Our choice today is strawberry creme. We hope your day is simply smashing, and, as always, do keep in touch if something saucy arises. …

Roche is planning to move a new antibiotic into late stage clinical trials after early studies showed it had potential to tackle a common superbug that has become resistant to other treatments, The Financial Times says.  If successful, it would be the first new class of antibiotic capable of killing acinetobacter or any other “Gram-negative” bacteria to be developed for more than 50 years. Gram-negative bacteria are particularly hard to treat because they have a second outer membrane, creating a formidable barrier for drugs to cross. The last new class of antibiotics approved to treat Gram-negative bacteria was in 1968. Roche will launch a Phase 3 trial for zosurabalpin at the end of the year, or early next year. Acinetobacter can cause life-threatening infections including pneumonia and sepsis, and patients who are immunocompromised because of cancer or other serious diseases are particularly vulnerable. The trial will recruit about 400 patients at more than 100 sites worldwide, with the aim of getting the drug approved toward the end of the decade.  

Colorado’s prescription drug affordability board members indicated they plan to use Medicare’s negotiated price for the autoimmune treatment Enbrel as a key benchmark for setting a limit on what health plans in the state pay for the medication, Bloomberg Law writes. Board members said in their first rule-making hearing on setting an upper payment limit for Amgen‘s top-selling drug that they may set a cap at or above Medicare’s annual maximum fair price of roughly $30,000 per patient for 2026. The Medicare negotiated price for Enbrel set under the Inflation Reduction Act drug price program is set to take effect next year. The pharmaceutical industry, however, has cautioned against using the Medicare price for setting an upper payment limit. Amgen lost a legal battle in March, when a U.S. court judge ruled that the Colorado board can proceed with plans to place limits on the prices paid for medicines, which was the first such decision to support the controversial attempts by some states to control their prescription drug spending.