The Congressional Budget Office is estimating $345 billion could be saved in direct federal spending on Medicare Part D prescription drugs from 2023 through 2029 if H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act, was passed.
"With any traditional antidepression medicine, it takes three, four, six weeks before you see a response. With this class of drug, on day four, boom, there is a connection between it and lifting depression."
Regulatory decisions affecting biopharma products in development, including approvals, recommendations, rejections and the granting of regulatory pathways, in September 2019.
The number of biopharma deals and mergers and acquisitions completed are on a downward slide quarter-by-quarter, although when taken as a whole, the industry in 2019 has completed as many transactions and is hitting a higher deal value than the year before, while M&A values are up by 32%.
Heading into the final quarter, the sector's leading biopharmaceutical companies once again underperformed the general market in September. Overall, the third quarter was extremely lackluster with investors showing little interest in getting involved, a situation that is likely to prevail until the end of the year. Companies will need to release strong 3Q financial reports just to tread water in the coming months.
In the third quarter, global biopharmaceutical companies collectively raised more than $12 billion from public and private transactions. Year to date (YTD), the sector has generated $41.5 billion, according to BioWorld data, putting it on track for a $55 billion haul for the year.
The recent FDA approval of Ibsrela (tenapanor), Ardelyx Inc.’s treatment for irritable bowel syndrome with constipation in adults, brings, according to the agency’s data, the number of new molecular entities (NMEs) to 27 this year. With just three months remaining, it appears that the biopharma sector is on pace with the five-year average of about 43 NMEs approved annually.