STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about anxious Novartis investors, patent expirations for biologics, and more

This STAT Pharmalittle roundup's main biomedical business items focus on Novartis pipeline setbacks and the looming patent cliff for biologics.

Novartis investors are set to step up scrutiny of the company's dealmaking strategy after setbacks to drugs acquired through M&A hit its shares and raised pipeline concerns, according to Reuters. Eight shareholders said the failure of del-desiran, a muscle-wasting disorder drug, in a late-stage study—the second major trial setback for Novartis in days—raised questions over last year's $12 billion Avidity purchase and other acquisitions. Novartis shares slumped 11% in one day this week, wiping nearly $30 billion off its market value and all gains made since the start of the year after the del-desiran results.

A second item, citing a Wall Street Journal report on an Association for Accessible Medicines analysis, says 90% of expensive, widely used biologics facing patent expiration by 2034 have no lower-cost alternatives in development. With 118 popular biologics going off patent, Americans could miss out on nearly $200 billion in health care savings over the next decade, according to the trade group's estimates. These drugs are complex medicines manufactured inside living cells and often become multibillion-dollar blockbusters; meanwhile, market uptake for newly launched biosimilars has declined steeply in recent years, dimming drugmaker enthusiasm for developing them.