In today's Pharmaceutical Executive Daily, a new analysis finds that TrumpRx is listing prices for roughly a third of its featured drugs higher than what patients in the United Kingdom pay, two biotech companies focused on next-generation T-cell engager therapies close significant funding rounds, and Pharmaceutical Executive sits down with Jeanne Marrazzo of the Infectious Diseases Society of America on the worsening U.S. measles outbreak and what it means for the future of vaccine confidence.
Welcome to Pharmaceutical Executive Daily, your quick briefing on the top news shaping the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry.
In today's Pharmaceutical Executive Daily, a new analysis finds that TrumpRx is listing prices for roughly a third of its featured drugs higher than what patients in the United Kingdom pay, two biotech companies focused on next-generation T-cell engager therapies close significant funding rounds, and Pharmaceutical Executive sits down with Jeanne Marrazzo of the Infectious Diseases Society of America on the worsening U.S. measles outbreak and what it means for the future of vaccine confidence.
A Reuters comparison of TrumpRx pricing against UK National Health Service data found that prices for approximately a third of the 54 drugs listed on the administration's direct-to-consumer platform were lower in the UK, including several medications that were between 67% and 82% cheaper abroad. Critics have noted that the most-favored-nation agreements underlying TrumpRx are voluntary and carry no enforcement mechanisms, and that the platform reflects cash prices rather than what most insured Americans actually pay at the pharmacy.
In funding news, Excalipoint Therapeutics has emerged with an oversubscribed $68.7 million seed round, one of the largest early-stage raises for a Chinese biotech, to advance six T-cell engager programs targeting solid tumors and difficult-to-treat cancers across three proprietary platforms. Separately, Crossbow Therapeutics has closed a $77 million Series B to continue its Phase 1 trial of CBX-250, a first-in-class TCE targeting a peptide HLA complex found on myeloid cancer cells, with initial data expected by the end of 2026.
Finally, in a Q&A with Pharmaceutical Executive, Jeanne Marrazzo, CEO of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, describes the current measles outbreak as the largest the United States has seen in decades, one large enough that the country has already lost its measles elimination status. Marrazzo attributes the resurgence to a growing pool of unvaccinated individuals, the extreme transmissibility of the virus, and conflicting messaging from federal health officials that has eroded public trust in vaccines.
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