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Hello! Hope your weekend was a blissful one. Today, we talk about AbbVie’s outsize marketing spend, see how GLP-1s are impacting cancer rates, and more.
The need-to-know this morning
- Eli Lilly said it will acquire Morphic Holding, a biotech developing a treatment for inflammatory bowel disease. Lilly will pay about $3.2 billion to buy the Waltham, Mass.-based company. That translates to $57 per share, a premium of roughly 79% from Morphic’s Friday closing price.
- Ideaya Biosciences reported results from a mid-stage study showing a 39% tumor response rate for its experimental cancer drug IDE397 in patients with bladder and lung cancer with an MTAP deletion.
- HilleVax said its experimental vaccine against the norovirus failed to reduce severe gastrointestinal events compared to a placebo in infants enrolled in a mid-stage clinical trial. The company intends to discontinue development of the vaccine, called HIL-214, in infants but may explore further development in adults.
AbbVie dramatically outspent rivals in drug promotion
AbbVie spent an eye-popping $145.7 million last year on marketing to health care providers, a STAT analysis of government data shows. This hefty expenditure, the highest of any pharma company since 2017, includes payments for consulting, speaking fees, travel, and meals for doctors.
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