Product Development

Vertex’s road map & innovation in MS: a BioCentury podcast

Deal in Focus zeroes in on ADC partnership between RemeGen, Seagen

As Vertex continues to build beyond its $6 billion CF franchise, the company is selectively accruing capabilities in new modalities by first choosing diseases, then identifying technologies to match. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s editors discuss Vertex’s growth path as well as the next wave of MS therapies and an ADC deal between RemeGen and Seagen. 

Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn explains how the growth trajectory of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTX) could see the company to join the group of “big biotechs” that includes, for example, Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN). She notes that as the company grows, it’s not limiting itself to a single technology or modality, but rather tailoring its approaches to its chosen new disease areas.

Fishburn says the company's approach essentially boils down to asking: “What is an indication where we can really solve that indication?” And then “bringing whatever tools they have to bear. In some cases by partnerships, a couple of places, acquisitions to really tackle that disease.”

In multiple sclerosis, Senior Editor Karen Tkach Tuzman previews her forthcoming feature story on innovation, where she says the biggest trends among early-stage programs are immunosuppression strategies that are more selective than marketed therapies, and strategies to increase myelination of axons.

And in this week’s Deal in Focus, Executive Editor Jeff Cranmer discusses the ADC partnership between  RemeGen Co. Ltd. (HKEX:9995) and Seagen Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN). The deal, Cranmer says, has the companies partnering to develop an anti-HER2 antibody-drug conjugate the partners believe is differentiated from other ADCs against the target, and can address conditions for which others haven’t been approved.