Today, a brief rundown of news involving Curium and Sionna Therapeutics, as well as updates from Novo Nordisk, Corbus Pharmaceuticals, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals and Contineum Therapeutics that you may have missed.
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesdayapproved a first-of-its-kind generic drugfromCurium. The clearance was awarded toBexlutry, a copycat version ofNovartis’ Lutathera. Like Lutathera, Bexlutry delivers radioactive lutetium to a protein, “SSTR,” found on the surface of certain neuroendocrine tumors. It’s now the first generic“radioligand therapy,” or targeted radiopharmaceutical for cancer. The approval covers use in treating SSTR-positive neuroendocrine cancers, which include foregut, midgut and hindgut tumors. It was issued after Curiumprevailed in a patent disputewith Novartis.— Ben Fidler
Sionna Therapeuticswilllay off nearly half its workforceand alter its clinical development strategy followingdisappointing results in a key cystic fibrosis drug trial. On Monday, the company said an after-the-fact analysis unearthed multiple confounding factors in its failed trial. The company intends to incorporate the lessons learned into a new Phase 2 study testing a different regimen. Sionna’s explanation “seems reasonable, but it’s still very hard to have conviction,” wroteStifelanalystPaul Matteis. The coming job cuts and other cost-saving moves will extend Sionna’s financial runway into the second half of 2029 while it pursues its new strategy.— Ben Fidler
Novo Nordiskwilldrop the “Nordisk” in its nameas part of a corporate rebranding, the company said Monday. Going forward, “Novo” will be used as the company’s “day-to-day” name while “Novo Nordisk” will remain its legal name, according to a Monday statement. The rebrand comes ahead of a “capital markets” day next week, during which Novo intends to provide investors with an overview of its “updated corporate strategy.” The company has lost more than two-thirds of its market value since mid-2024 andceded its leadership position in obesity treatmentto rivalEli Lilly.— Ben Fidler
An experimentalCorbus Pharmaceuticalsdrug helped people with obesitylose as much as 5 percentage points more than a placeboafter 12 weeks in an early-stage trial. Corbus’ drug,CRB-913, targets a kind of cannabinoid receptor that regulates appetite, an approach thatso far has yieldeddisappointing clinical results. ToJefferiesanalystAmin Makarem, the early efficacy results reported Monday were “competitive” and suggest “differentiated” tolerability compared to GLP-1 drugs. Still, anywhere from 1.5% to nearly 10% of patients, depending on the dose, stopped treatment because of psychiatric side effects. Those types of side effects are a concern with cannabinoid drugs and “the key debate” surrounding CRB-913, Makarem wrote in a client note. Corbus plans to start a Phase 2 study next year.— Ben Fidler
A dual-acting RNA interference therapy fromArrowhead Pharmaceuticalseffectively silenced two genes implicated in cardiovascular disease in an early-stage trial,the company said Tuesday.According to Arrowhead, a single dose of that therapy,Aro-Dimer-Pa,reduced levels of the proteins PCSK9 and APOC3 circulating in the blood by 72% and 88%, respectively. Arrowhead is positioning the medicine as a treatment for “mixed hyperlipidemia,” a common condition characterized by high levels of bad cholesterol and fats in the blood. Mixed hyperlipidemia is a “very large” market opportunity and Arrowhead now appears to have a “highly differentiated drug,” wroteCantor FitzgeraldanalystPrakhar Agrawal.— Delilah Alvarado
Contineum Therapeuticssaid Monday an investigational drug it’s been working on withJohnson & Johnsonfailed a Phase 2 trialin major depressive disorder. Compared to a placebo over the course of five days, the drug didn’t meaningfully improve scores on a widely used depression rating scale, Contineum said. Though the outcome was “disappointing,” investors had “low expectations” for the study, wroteRBC Capital MarketsanalystBrian Abrahams, noting that the company’s “main value driver” is a fibrosis drug that’s also in clinical testing. J&J will evaluate the depression data to inform the next steps for the program.— Delilah Alvarado
