Lisdexamfetamine Dimesylate

GSK's $12 billion biobucks Hengrui deal, Takeda's revenue decline and Celltrion's tariff mitigation plan made our news this week. GSK signed a 12-asset licensing deal with Hengrui Pharma. Generic erosion on Vyvanse continued to hurt Takeda. Celltrion is nearing the purchase of a large U.S. facility to help mitigate the impact of tariffs. And more.1. GSK strengthens COPD offering via $12B biobucks, 12-program deal with China's Hengrui PharmaGSK has inked a large licensing deal with China’s Hengrui Pharma covering up to 12 assets. The British pharma is gaining a PDE3/4 inhibitor currently in clinical development for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as options to take over 11 other programs once Hengrui completes its phase 1 trials. The deal includes $500 million upfront and up to $12 billion biobucks.2. Takeda wades through more Vyvanse declines, muses DTC model as US pricing uncertainty loomsTakeda’s quarterly revenues from April to June sank 8.4% year over year to 1.1 trillion yen ($7.3 billion), partly because of the generic erosion of the company’s ADHD med Vyvanse. Still, Takeda's CFO said the hit was expected as the firm maintained its full-year 2025 outlook. Meanwhile, Takeda is considering applying a direct-to-consumer model for some of its drugs, U.S. business head and CEO-to-be Julie Kim said.3. Celltrion closes in on US plant purchase, dubbing drug substance facility 'fundamental' to tariff mitigationCelltrion is nearing a deal to buy a large-scale drug substance plant in the U.S. from an undisclosed global pharma, Reuters reports. The Korean company plans to invest about $504 million in the acquisition and operation of the facility, CEO Seo Jung-Jin said during an event. In a letter to shareholders, Celltrion referred to the biologics plant acquisition as “a fundamental solution to the tariff issue.”4. Madrigal pens $2B pact for CSPC's preclinical GLP-1 with eye on Rezdiffra MASH pairingMadrigal Pharmaceuticals is paying $120 million upfront for a preclinical GLP-1 receptor agonist from China’s CSPC Pharmaceutical. The plan is to pair the drug, dubbed SYH2086, with Madrigal’s Rezdiffra, which last year became the first FDA-approved therapy for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. The deal includes up to $2 billion in milestones.5. Instil's licensed PD-L1xVEGF bispecific shows promise in China, instilling hope for upcoming US testImmuneOnco Biopharmaceuticals’ PD-L1xVEGF bispecific IMM2510, used together with chemotherapy, induced partial responses in 62% of first-line patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer enrolled in a China phase 2 trial. Responses were seen in eight of 10 squamous patients and five of 11 nonsquamous patients. Instil Bio recently got the FDA’s approval to test the drug in a phase 1b/2 trial in the U.S.Other News of Note:6. Sun Pharma, Taro agree to $200M settlement in generics price-fixing litigation7. Chinese antibody developer Leads Biolabs hits Hong Kong stock exchange in $189M IPO8. J&J, Legend crunch the multiple myeloma numbers in first Carvykti TV ad9. Olympus forms build-to-buy GI robotics startup with Revival Healthcare Capital10. Kissei pays Viridian $70M to challenge Amgen for Japanese eye disease market

The Japanese drugmaker says the significant hit of Vyvanse generic erosion this quarter was expected. Takeda, coming off a high of 2024 growth, is pushing through what it says will be the worst of its Vyvanse-related declines.The company’s quarterly revenues from April to June sank 8.4% to 1.1 trillion Japanese yen ($7.3 billion). While the impact of generic erosion on sales of its branded Vyvanse ADHD med was “very significant,” the Japanese drugmaker had expected the hit, CFO Milano Furuta commented in its quarterly earnings release. With no change to its previously announced full-year 2025 outlook of a 1.1% revenue dip to 4.5 trillion Japanese yen ($30.2 billion), Takeda said (PDF) in its investor presentation that the first quarter was already slated to be the period most impacted by the generics due to its “strong Vyvanse performance” over last year’s first quarter. The company has for years been struggling to shake off the ghost of its longtime top-selling ADHD med since generics hit in late 2023. Takeda has described 2025 as the final year of major generic headwinds, although it had previously said the same about its 2024 expectations.The revenue declines are largely confined to the U.S., where Vyvanse generics are most abundant.With 50% of its revenue coming from the U.S., Takeda is one of many trying to make sense of the “numerous different statements” that have been made about President Donald Trump’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug pricing policy, U.S. business head and CEO-to-be Julie Kim said on a call with investors. While some companies, like AstraZeneca, have been engaging directly with the U.S. government on pricing policies, Takeda has “not been contacted directly” yet, Kim said. The company has been focusing on preparing for potential Inflation Reduction Act-related price changes to its inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) treatment Entyvio and working on its own “mitigation plans” for a “variety of different scenarios” in which MFN could play out, she said.In the meantime, the Japanese drugmaker is leaning toward a direct-to-consumer (DTC) model in the U.S., allowing it to sell its drugs to patients while cutting out the “middlemen” of pharmacy benefit managers. While Takeda’s portfolio is “not necessarily the type” of medicines typically sold through DTC platforms, it will “look at opportunities” for applying the program to some products, such as its depression med Trintellix, Kim explained.In the U.S., things are still looking good for Entyvio. The drug has been pulling its weight as the company’s top sales driver and continues to hold the line as the No.1 most prescribed brand in the crowded U.S. IBD market, according to Takeda. The drug rivals competitors in AbbVie’s Skyrizi and Rinvoq, plus Johnson & Johnson’s Stelara and Tremfya, to name a few. With both the original infused formulation and a newer subcutaneous autopen version of Entyvio, the company is “unlocking the full IBD market potential,” with growing adoption of the autopen, it noted in its presentation. Notably, the med maintains its spot as the leading first-line biologic in bio-naïve new starters for ulcerative colitis.Still, there have been “some challenges” from transitioning patients’ insurance coverage when switching to the Entyvio Pen, Kim acknowledged. The pen version specifically is growing about 30% sequentially, with more growth expected to come as the company works through issues impacting coverage and access one by one, Kim said.