In today's Pharmaceutical Executive Daily, new U.S. Commerce Department guidance lays out tariff exemptions for specialty pharmaceutical categories under Presidential Proclamation 11020, Pharming's Fabrice Chouraqui steps down as chief executive officer amid strategic disagreements with the board, and a pharma dealmaking roundup covers Hengrui Pharma's licensing agreement with Novo Nordisk for the oral GLP-1R/GIPR dual agonist HRS-1596 and AstraZeneca's $2 billion equity investment in Summit Therapeutics.
New guidance lays out which specialty pharmaceutical products are exempt from the administration's 100% tariffs on branded and patented pharmaceuticals under Presidential Proclamation 11020. The Commerce Department's September 23 guidance, effective September 29, spares eight product categories, including orphan drugs, gene and cell therapies, and antibody drug conjugates, when sourced from one of 19 listed countries, and separately outlines an urgent-health-need petition process and reduced- or zero-tariff pathways for companies that commit to U.S. manufacturing.
Pharming Group's chief executive officer Fabrice Chouraqui steps down effective immediately, following what the company describes as strategic misalignment with the board over execution of Pharming's next phase. Leverne Marsh, chief commercial officer, and Kenneth Lynard, chief financial officer, step in as interim co-chief executive officers while the board searches for a permanent successor, a transition that comes after Pharming cut its full-year revenue guidance to $375 million to $395 million in its second-quarter results.
Finally, two licensing and investment deals signal continued momentum in GLP-1 and oncology dealmaking. Hengrui Pharma grants Novo Nordisk exclusive global rights, excluding Greater China, to HRS-1596, a once-weekly oral GLP-1R/GIPR dual agonist for obesity and type 2 diabetes, in a deal worth $300 million upfront and up to $2.6 billion in milestones. Separately, AstraZeneca makes a $2 billion equity investment in Summit Therapeutics, roughly a 12% stake, to pair Summit's PD-1/VEGF-targeting bispecific antibody ivonescimab with AstraZeneca's CLDN18.2-targeting antibody drug conjugate sonesitatug vedotin in gastrointestinal and other cancers.
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