China has approved a new obesity treatment from Pfizer, heightening competition in a market poised to become even more crowded with the looming entry of generics, as reported by Bloomberg News. The drug, ecnoglutide, is approved for chronic weight management in overweight or obese adults. The company secured China rights to the therapy from local startup Hangzhou Sciwind Bioscience in a $495 million deal last month. Pfizer now enters a field dominated by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, alongside Chinese drugmaker Innovent Biologics, though the company has not disclosed a price or launch date. The approval comes just as Novo’s Wegovy faces patent expiry later this month, opening the door for cheaper copycat drugs.
A senior U.S. Food and Drug Administration official called UniQure’s experimental treatment for Huntington’s disease a “failed product” in a conference call with media on Thursday, casting further doubt on the prospects for the gene therapy, according to Reuters. The drugmaker had said on Monday that the agency called for a new study to support the approval of its gene therapy for the rare, inherited neurodegenerative disorder, and rejected its most recent trial for not including participants given a placebo. The FDA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, stated that a trial run by the company several years ago with a placebo design “was stone cold negative. We have a failed product here.” UniQure expressed confidence in the strength of the data submitted to the FDA.
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