JPMorgan merges EU operations into single German business

 

American banking giant JPMorgan has merged most of its European Union businesses into a single entity in Germany, it said on Monday, seeking to make its business in the bloc more competitive after Britain's departure.

The bank said it had simplified its European structure by merging its Luxembourg and Irish entities into German business JP Morgan AG.

JPMorgan said the new combined operation "will be among the five largest banking legal entities in Germany" and go into the top 20 of those supervised by the European Central Bank (ECB). It said it would have a total capital base of about 34 billion euros ($38.51 billion).

Major U.S. banks have been reorganising their European operations since Brexit because they can no longer serve EU clients out of London. Channelling most of its EU business through a single entity will make it cheaper for JPMorgan to operate by reducing how much capital it needs to hold in total and combining different pools of liquidity.

The reorganisation of the group's EU legal entity structure does not involve any change to its existing office locations, JPMorgan added.

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/latest/JPMorgan-merges-EU-operations-into-single-German-business--37621911/

Watson, Watsoff

 IBM has called time on its ambitions in the healthcare space. The computing company is to sell the healthcare data and analytics assets of its Watson Health business to the private equity shop Francisco Partners for a reported $1bn, freeing itself from a once-promising initiative that subsequently became something of a nightmare. Over the years, IBM signed many agreements with pharma and medtech companies as well as research groups with the aim of using its artificial intelligence software to aid treatment selection and even diagnosis of conditions including cancer. IBM also acquired several companies, spending several billion dollars in total, to integrate their tech with its own. By 2017 signs were emerging that IBM had over-promised and under-delivered, but it was a year later that catastrophe really struck with reports that Watson could in some cases recommend potentially harmful treatments (see table). Selling the core of Watson Health will allow IBM to sharpen its focus on cloud computing and its broader AI business, the company said. Meanwhile Francisco Partners finds itself in possession of vast amounts of valuable health data. Francisco has not set out its plans, though it has a useful exemplar of what not to do. 

IBM Watson timeline: selected highlights and lowlights
Date	Event
Feb 16, 2011	Watson beats two human contestants on Jeopardy! quiz show.
Feb 17, 2011	IBM takes the first step into healthcare with a collaboration with Nuance Communications, to use Watson’s analytics to aid diagnosis and treatment of patients.
Feb 8, 2013	Watson’s first commercial product, a system to help doctors and researchers identify treatment options for patients with lung cancer, launches. Pricing is undisclosed.
Oct 18, 2013	The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center launches a prototype Watson-powered system to mine data from the cancer centre’s patient and research databases and suggest treatments.
Apr 13, 2015	Medtronic and IBM collaborate to use Watson to improve artificial pancreas algorithms
Dec 10, 2015	IBM Watson collaborates with Novo Nordisk to improve diabetes care via insights from Novo's treatments and devices.
Aug 6, 2015	IBM buys Merge Healthcare for $1bn; plans to integrate Merge's imaging software with Watson.
Feb 18, 2016	IBM buys Truven Health Analytics for $2.6bn; plans to integrate Truven's cloud-based healthcare data & analytics with Watson.
Feb 2017	MD Anderson puts the Watson partnership on hold; a report from the University of Texas says the project cost more than $62m.
Jul 2018	Reports emerge that Watson’s algorithm led to several cases of wrong and even unsafe treatment recommendations
Jan 21, 2022	IBM sells Watson Health’s healthcare data and analytics assets to Francisco Partners, reportedly for more than $1bn
Source: company announcements, news reports. https://www.evaluate.com/vantage/articles/news/deals-snippets/watson-watsoff

Anixa, MolGenie: Early Potency Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Protease Inhibitor

 Anixa's compound may be five times more potent than the protease inhibitor in Pfizer's PAXLOVID™ at inhibiting Mpro, the main protease of SARS-CoV-2

Anixa Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANIX), a biotechnology company focused on the treatment and prevention of cancer and infectious diseases, today announced that the company and its partner, MolGenie GmbH, have synthesized a compound that appears to be considerably more potent than nirmatrelvir at inhibiting Mpro, the main protease of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Nirmatrelvir is the main component of Pfizer's PAXLOVID™, which was recently authorized to treat COVID-19. PAXLOVID also includes ritonavir, which is an HIV drug.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/anixa-biosciences-molgenie-announce-early-133000070.html

BeiGene: Positive Findings from Phase 3 Gastric Cancer Combo Trial

 In the RATIONALE 305 trial, tislelizumab combined with chemotherapy prolonged overall survival for patients with PD-L1 expression

Additional follow-up is needed to assess overall survival benefits in intention-to-treat patient population

Safety findings of tislelizumab were consistent with that observed in previous trials

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/beigene-announces-positive-findings-phase-100000175.html

U.S. FDA declines to approve Merck's cough treatment

 Merck & Co said on Monday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve its experimental drug for the treatment of chronic cough and sought additional information on the treatment's effectiveness.

Merck said it would meet with the agency to discuss next steps on the oral drug, gefapixant.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-fda-declines-approve-mercks-115310497.html

Ioniis: Eplontersen receives orphan drug designation

 Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: IONS), the leader in antisense therapeutics, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation to eplontersen, an investigational antisense medicine for the treatment of people living with transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis, a systemic, progressive and fatal condition. Orphan drug designation is granted by the FDA to drugs and biologics intended for treatment, prevention or diagnosis of a rare disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. at the time of designation.

Eplontersen is a LIgand-Conjugated Antisense (LICA) investigational medicine currently in Phase 3 clinical trials for amyloid transthyretin cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) and amyloid transthyretin polyneuropathy (ATTR-PN). It is designed to reduce the production of transthyretin (TTR protein) to treat both hereditary and non-hereditary forms of TTR amyloidosis (ATTR). In December 2021, Ionis announced a strategic collaboration with AstraZeneca to develop and commercialize eplontersen.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ionis-announces-eplontersen-receives-orphan-120500840.html

Karyopharm Gets Orphan Drug Tag for Eltanexor for Myelodysplastic Syndromes

 Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: KPTI), a commercial-stage pharmaceutical company pioneering novel cancer therapies, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation for eltanexor, a novel oral, Selective Inhibitor of Nuclear Export (SINE) compound, for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). MDS are a group of diseases characterized by ineffective production of the components of the blood due to poor bone marrow function with a risk of progression to acute myeloid leukemia.

Karyopharm is currently investigating eltanexor in an ongoing open-label Phase 1/2 study as a single-agent or in combination with approved and investigational agents in patients with several types of hematologic and solid tumor cancers (KCP-8602-801; NCT02649790). Previously, Karyopharm reported positive data from an investigator-sponsored Phase 1 study evaluating single-agent eltanexor in patients with hypomethylating agent (HMA)-refractory MDS, where eltanexor demonstrated a 53% overall response rate and median overall survival of 9.9 months. This compares favorably to historical survival of four to six months for HMA-refractory MDS patients.

Approximately 15,000 people are diagnosed with intermediate-to-high risk MDS each year in the U.S.1 HMAs are the current standard of care for newly diagnosed, higher-risk MDS patients. However, only 40-60% of patients respond, with these responses typically lasting less than two years.2 The prognosis in HMA-refractory disease is poor, with a median overall survival of four to six months.3,4 There are currently no approved therapies for HMA- refractory MDS.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/karyopharm-receives-orphan-drug-designation-120000258.html