It’s an honor to fill in for Ed Silverman this morning. There is only one Pharmalot, but when he’s out, his fellow STAT coffee and tea drinkers step in to make sure your morning cup of pharma news is uninterrupted. It’s Friday, the last workday before the long Memorial Day weekend here in the U.S. (and so we’ll next land in your inbox Tuesday). If you haven’t switched over to iced coffee yet, please do so. Of course, in Boston, we imbibe our caffeine frosty all year round. Let’s go!
Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic cut the risk of cardiovascular-related deaths by 29% and all-cause deaths by 20% in a trial of patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease, suggesting it may offer some added benefits over other classes of drugs approved to treat this population, STAT reports. Given the study parameters, this implies that over three years, 39 people would need to be treated to prevent one death from any cause, according to new results presented Friday at a meeting of the European Renal Association and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Eli Lilly said Friday that it is investing an additional $5 billion to expand an Indiana manufacturing facility to boost production of its blockbuster obesity and diabetes medicines Zepbound and Mounjaro, the company reports. High demand for the drugs has created supply shortages nationwide. Lilly said the new capital spending increases the total investment in the manufacturing facility to $9 billion, and is the single largest investment in drug manufacturing in U.S. history.
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