Global Pharma Giants Slash R&D Pipelines Amid Financial and Clinical Setbacks

Recently, Takeda Pharmaceutical announced its semi-annual data,Cut off 4 pipelines,Earnings forecasts were cut by as much as 71%.Financial ReportShows growth encountering certain bottlenecks.  

Takeda Cuts 4 Pipelines

In the first half of 2023, Takeda's total sales were approximately $13.871 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.4%, but profits fell sharply by 53% to approximately $1.787 billion.  

Takeda's product pipeline can be divided into five major parts: gastrointestinal products, rare diseases, plasma derivatives, psychiatric disorders, and oncology.

Among them, the gastrointestinal products are their core pipeline, achieving a year-on-year growth of 9.2% in the first half of the year.

The report shows that a series of uncontrollable factors led to an increase in the company's net losses, and it was announced that four R&D product pipelines would be cut, namely:

1.Exkivity：Product for the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer terminated due to lack of efficacy benefit in Phase III clinical trials.  

2.TAK-920/DNL-919：AD treatment products were halted in development due to "moderate, reversible hematological effects."  

3.TAK-611：Showed in the Phase II trial for the treatment of Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD) that the primary and secondary endpoints were not met, leading to the discontinuation of development.  

4.TAK-105：Due to poor data performance, the development of the candidate drug TAK-105 for treating nausea and vomiting will be discontinued.  

The advent of a new drug is never an easy task,Facing pressures such as difficulties in new drug development and declining sales performance, leading pharmaceutical companies have been forced to make decisions to adjust their pipelines.SeeJust look at the annual investment by major foreign enterprises in the R&D field and the product lines they abandon each year.

Multiple pharmaceutical companies cut pipelines

Pfizer Cuts 5 Pipelines:On October 31, the same day as the Q3 financial report, Pfizer announced it would cut five clinical programs, including two Phase II projects and three Phase I projects, covering areas such as cancer and dermatology.

GSK Cuts 3 Pipelines:On November 1, the company's financial report showed that it had made two reductions to its Phase I oncology projects, terminating a LAG-3 targeted antibody and a small molecule STING agonist—the latter known as GSK3745417. GSK also abandoned one...Recombinant ProteinProject, which is in the Phase I development stage for the treatment of Clostridioides difficile.

This year, GSK also ended its investment in the cell and gene therapy field.

Roche Cuts Another 4 Pipelines:Roche inRecentlyThe latest financial report released in the third quarter revealed that Cibis would be abandoned based on "all efficacy and safety data as well as the evolving treatment landscape in the therapeutic area."Atamab'sEntityPhase I trial, Cibisatamab is aSpecies and carcinoembryonic antigen bindingT cell bispecific antibody.  

Due to the failure of futility analysis in the TWAINI trial and not reaching the primary endpoint in the TWAINII trial, the Phase II program of TAAR1 agonist ralmitaront for the treatment of schizophrenia has been abandoned.

The Phase II program for vicasinabin in the treatment of diabetic retinopathy was abandoned due to failure to meet the primary endpoint in the CANBERRA Phase II study conducted in patients with moderate to severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy.

Due to the Phase III trial results last month being below expectations, Roche has also abandoned its research on the BCL-2 inhibitor Venclexta in combination with dexamethasone for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. However, the Phase III trial of Venclexta in combination with azacitidine for一线骨髓增生异常综合征 (first-line myelodysplastic syndromes) is still ongoing.

Notably, Roche cut six pipelines in the first quarter, and its semi-annual report mentioned the termination of several candidate drug developments, including tislelizumab, which is in Phase III.Napase for stroke indication, RG6358 (a gene therapy for Hemophilia A) in Phase II, and four new molecular entity drugs still in Phase I research.

AbbVie Deletes Two Pipelines:August 23,AbbVie UpdateAbbVie has removed two ADC pipelines from its product line, including ABBV-011 and ABBV-647, which was in collaboration with Pfizer.  

Bristol-Myers Squibb cuts 6 projects:September 14,Bristol-Myers SquibbAnnounced the reduction of its R&D pipeline on its R&D day, including two Phase 2 clinical projects (HSP47 and a TIGIT solid tumor project) and four Phase 1 clinical projects.  

Moderna, Cut 4 Pipelines:Moderna, the company that got rich quick on COVID-19 vaccines, which will "prioritize pipeline sorting when necessary" and eliminate accordingly.These include two pipelines abandoned by AstraZeneca after collaboration: AZD8601, MEDI1191, as well as mRNA-1653 and mRNA-1703.

In addition, this yearSince,SanofiEnded the development of the BTK inhibitor atuzabrutinib and stopped two projects involving dupilumab for allergic fungal rhinitis and chronic sinusitis without nasal polyps;NovartisThen cut 10% of non-core projects from the R&D pipeline, etc.  

Reference:CompanyFinancial Report, HuaxiaDaily Report, Official Account "Cell Gene Therapy"