Nov 17, 2021

Beth Snyder Bulik Senior Editor Acadia Pharmaceuticals is putting the power of storytelling to work for Parkinson’s disease. While storytelling in general is often used in pharma marketing to help explain the realities of health conditions, Acadia is teaming up with the storytelling powerhouse StoryCorps for the new campaign . Called “Yours, Truly,” the work centers on pairs of people in poignant conversations relaying the stories of their own or their loved ones’ Parkinson’s experience. Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription Unlock this story instantly and join 123,500+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free. SIGN UP Zachary Brennan Senior Editor The House Energy & Commerce Committee began marking up a dozen bills on Wednesday morning including one that would require the FDA to craft a five-year action plan for fostering the development of drugs that improve or extend the lives of people living with rare neurodegenerative diseases. Rare neurodegenerative diseases, like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, have been historically very difficult to treat. But this bipartisan bill, introduced by Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL), will provide $100 million for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026 to help HHS award grants to facilitate access to investigational drugs that diagnose or treat ALS. Read More Jason Mast Editor A few weeks after Jennifer Doudna introduced CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to the world, one of her old students decided to take the central part of the biology-altering invention and kill it. CRISPR/Cas9, as the name implies, is a two-part system: a string of letters called a guide RNA, that says where to cut the DNA. And an enzyme, Cas9, that does the cutting. Often compared to molecular scissors, it was the first system that allowed researchers to cut DNA with ease and precision, promising potential cures for genetic diseases such as sickle cell and cystic fibrosis. Premium subscription required Zachary Brennan Senior Editor Although sales of Biogen’s expensive new Alzheimer’s drug have been anemic since the approval in June, the prospect of CMS eventually paying for it opens up a billion-dollar can of worms, and already has the agency defending some premium and deductible increases for seniors. CMS explained late Friday that Medicare Part B will have to increase its standard monthly premium — from $148.50 in 2021 to $170.10 in 2022 — in part because of the massive spending that could occur should the agency sign off on a national coverage decision for the drug, known as Aduhelm, and its $56,000 annual price tag next year. Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription Unlock this story instantly and join 123,500+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free. SIGN UP Zachary Brennan Senior Editor Reps. Fred Upton (R-MI) and Diana DeGette (D-CO) on Tuesday unveiled the second iteration of their mammoth 21st Century Cures Act, a wide-ranging, mostly pro-pharma law signed by former President Obama that pushed the FDA in certain directions on real-world data and other hot button issues. This time around there’s a provision to fund a $6.5 billion (on par with Biden’s request) research center at NIH to speed new treatments and make riskier investments. Similar to DARPA, the new NIH division to be known as ARPA-H, would be run by a small group of program managers with more latitude to pursue high-risk, high-reward projects. Premium subscription required Kyle Blankenship Managing Editor The US Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a probe into claims that Cassava Sciences, an Austin-based drug developer, manipulated data key to its case for its experimental Alzheimer’s drug simufilam, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The report comes just two days after Cassava in an SEC filing revealed that “certain government agencies” had asked the biotech for documentation. It wasn’t clear which agencies were inquiring or what information they sought, and Cassava went out of its way to say the requests weren’t accusations of wrongdoing. Keep reading Endpoints with a free subscription Unlock this story instantly and join 123,500+ biopharma pros reading Endpoints daily — and it's free. SIGN UP