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This week, Eli Lilly LLY announced that it is increasing its manufacturing capacity in the United States by building four new plants. AstraZeneca’s AZN phase III study on breast cancer candidate, camizestrant, meets its primary endpoint. The FDA granted priority review to a supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) seeking approval for expanded use of Merck’s MRK blockbuster drug, Keytruda, in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC).
Here's a recap of the week’s most important stories.
LLY to Invest $27B to Expand U.S. Manufacturing Sites
Lilly announced plans to invest $27 billion to build four new manufacturing sites in the United States in 2025, which will bring its total domestic manufacturing expansion commitments since 2020 to more than $50 billion. Previously, from 2020 to 2024, Lilly committed more than $23 billion for domestic capital expansion. The increased manufacturing investment can boost production capacity for its medicines, particularly its popular GLP-1 products, Mounjaro and Zepbound.
However, the company did not announce the site locations. The announcement came after last week’s reports that Trump plans to impose tariffs on imports of pharmaceutical products in a bid to encourage domestic production. The four new sites are expected to add more than 3000 highly skilled jobs and over 10,000 construction jobs in the United States.
Lilly announced that it is reducing the prices of its 7.5 mg and 10 mg single-dose vials of Zepbound to $499 per month for customers paying through a new self-pay program called LillyDirect Self-Pay Pharmacy Solutions. The 7.5 mg and 10 mg vials are currently priced at $599 and $699, respectively. Prices of 2.5 mg and 5 mg vials are also being reduced to $349 and $499 per month, respectively.
AZN’s Breast Cancer Study on Camizestrant Meets PFS Goal
AstraZeneca announced that its pipeline candidate, camizestrant, demonstrated a highly statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in the primary endpoint of progression-free survival in the SERENA-6 phase III study. The study evaluated camizestrant in combination with any one of the widely approved CDK4/6 inhibitors, palbociclib, ribociclib or abemaciclib, for the first-line treatment of patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer whose tumors develop ESR1 mutations. The study evaluated switching to the camizestrant combination versus continuing the standard-of-care combination of an aromatase inhibitor (AI) (anastrozole or letrozole) plus a CDK4/6 inhibitor.