Sanofi SA’s drug Dupixent succeeded in a late-stage trial for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), raising the odds that the blockbuster would be the first biologic medicine cleared to treat the lung disorder.
Dupixent, which is already prescribed for asthma and some skin conditions, showed a 30 percent reduction in the rate at which patients’ COPD worsened compared with those who received a placebo during the stage-three Boreas trial, the company said in a statement yesterday.
The positive data could herald a new era of cutting-edge treatments for the life-threatening respiratory affliction and provide another major boost in demand for the French drugmaker’s lead therapy.
Photo: AFP
Still, Sanofi probably needs Dupixent to also perform well in the related trial, called Notus, before it can apply for approval, said Tim Anderson, an analyst at Wolfe Research LLC.
That study likely would not produce key data until next year.
This is the first time an antibody therapy has shown to be effective against COPD and follows stumbles from AstraZeneca PLC’s drug Fasenra and GSK PLC’s Nucala, Peter Welford of Jefferies said in a recent note.
In the trial, Dupixent improved people’s lung function and quality of life.
The results are “unprecedented and potentially paradigm-shifting,” Dietmar Berger, Sanofi’s chief medical officer, said in the statement.
Common among current and former smokers, among others, COPD damages people’s lungs and can cause persistent coughing and breathlessness, along with anxiety, depression and sleep disturbances.
In the US, about 300,000 people suffer from the type of COPD that was included in this trial, Sanofi said.
There have been no new treatment approaches approved for COPD in more than a decade, Sanofi said.
Sanofi has developed Dupixent with the US company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. The French company has a peak sales forecast of more than 13 billion euros (US$14.2 billion) for the drug, which does not include any potential revenue for treating COPD.
Some analysts are forecasting that Dupixent would bring in as much as 18 billion euros in sales by 2030.
REASSURANCE: The company, which installed new equipment in its Taichung plant, said that it would produce 1-gamma nanometers node DRAMs in Taiwan in 2025 US-based memorychip supplier Micron Technology Inc on Friday said that it would start producing its most advanced DRAM exclusively in Taiwan in 2025. Micron said that it would mass produce chips using its advanced 1-gamma process node DRAM in Taiwan, ahead of any other production site worldwide. The company installed cutting-edge extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography production equipment in its A3 fab in Taichung last year. The 1-gamma process — its third-generation 10 nanometer-class node — was jointly developed by Micron’s research and development (R&D) teams in Taiwan and Japan. Micron on Thursday said it would invest up to US$3.6 billion in Japan. A Ministry
MARKET GAP: If China stops buying chips from US firm Micron, they might turn to competitors such as Nanya and South Korean suppliers, researchers said Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) shares rallied nearly 4 percent during early trading yesterday amid optimism that the nation’s biggest DRAM chipmaker would benefit from China’s latest ban on purchasing memory chips from Micron Technology Inc. The restrictions are widely considered a result of an escalating technology dispute between the US and China. Chinese firms might shift orders to non-US suppliers such as Nanya Technology and South Korean memory chipmakers Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The Cyberspace Administration of China on Sunday night said that its review found that Micron’s memory chips pose serious network security risks to the country’s critical
SECURITY RISK: Chinese companies could respond to the announcement by moving away from all products made by the US firm, diverting business toward Korean rivals China delivered the latest salvo in an escalating semiconductor war with the US, announcing that Micron Technology Inc products have failed to pass a cybersecurity review in the country. Operators of key infrastructure in China should not buy the company’s goods, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement on Sunday, adding that it found “relatively serious” cybersecurity risks in Micron products sold in China. The components caused “significant security risks to our critical information infrastructure supply chain,” which would affect national security, it said. The results come more than a month after China announced an investigation on imports from
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) senior vice president of business development Kevin Zhang (張曉強) told reporters yesterday that talks over a possible plant in Germany are continuing and that the earliest decision would be in August. “I don’t want to get into the politics side of the thing, but I do think that there is a need for us to provide our customers with a diverse supply,” Zhang said, adding that Europe is a “very significant geography given the customer base ... [and] the demand.” Zhang did not confirm the size of subsidy or cost of the potential project or
RSS