#101 - Raisin remedies, rebates & reptilian repair
The coffee break biotech roundup, by SomX.
Hello, my regenerating readers,
The streamers have barely come down from last week’s 100th issue milestone, and we’re at it again – this old Bird turns two this week!
In celebration, this week’s stories: machine learning breathes new life into natural product discovery, Berlin’s drug pricing reform hits a midlife crisis, mRNA flu vaccines outlast the standard shot, oral Wegovy is the new kid on the block in UK pharmacies, and Texas A&M coaxes mammalian regeneration out of dormancy – encouraging news for a bird with a complicated relationship to extinction.
Many happy returns,
Dodo
If there’s anything you’d like to see in future editions of Biotech Dodo, send us a message.
Discover 🔍
🌿 Machine learning identifies natural compound to treat lung disease (News Medical): Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a devastating disease with a median survival of 3–5 years. Using machine learning, researchers screened 16,700+ herbal compounds and landed on dihydromyricetin (DHM), a flavonoid from the Japanese raisin tree, which blocks ALK5 – the receptor that drives TGF-β signalling and with it lung fibrosis. In a mouse study, DHM shrank fibrotic lesions while showing a better safety profile than existing drugs.
Our take: Current pharmacotherapies, including pirfenidone and nintedanib, only slow IPF’s decline and do not halt or reverse fibrosis. That is what makes DHM interesting. Blocking ALK5 directly is a sharper shot at the fibrotic process itself, and in a disease this short on options, a cleaner mechanism is urgently needed. The catch is that TGF-β also works as a tumour suppressor; researchers have reported that blocking it has been linked to skin cancers in trials, so the trick will be silencing it in the lung without activating it everywhere else.
🇩🇪 German government to abandon variable drug discounting plans (Reuters): Berlin has dropped the variable rebate mechanism from its healthcare reform bill following intense industry pushback, replacing it with a fixed-rate discount so companies can plan ahead. The climbdown came after drugmakers threatened to pull money out, with Lilly halving a planned €2.3B German investment and AstraZeneca and Pfizer issuing similar threats. It is only a single concession though; the wider reform package keeps its price freeze extension and binding price-volume discounts.
Our take: Germany is trying to close a €20B funding gap, and the drug industry has just shown how much leverage it holds over that effort, with a single threat to pull investment enough to make the government u-turn on one of its cost-cutting measures within weeks. This has implications across Europe, where health systems face the same funding pressures. Both sides have now learnt the same lesson: pressure works, making any similar reform harder for the next government.
💉 mRNA Flu vaccine shows stronger, longer-lasting immune response (GEN): New research published in Nature Immunology shows Moderna's mRNA-1010 produced broader and longer-lasting antibody responses than a standard flu shot, and recognised strains the shot was not built to target. Five of 13 recipients developed germinal centre responses in the lymph nodes lasting the full 26 weeks, against none of the 15 people on the standard flu shot.
Our take: This is the first solid evidence the mRNA platform does something biologically different to standard flu shots, not just a stronger version of the same response. It lands at a pointed moment: mRNA-1010 was hit with a rare refusal-to-file in February, then won a unanimous 9-0 vote from the FDA’s advisory committee this week, with the final decision due 5 August. Reject it now and the FDA overrules its own experts, a hard position to defend.
💊 Weight-loss drug Wegovy to be available in pill form in UK for first time (BBC News): The MHRA has cleared Novo Nordisk’s oral semaglutide for prescription in the UK, the first oral GLP-1 approved for weight management. Taken once daily on an empty stomach, the tablet offers an alternative for patients who cannot or will not inject; at 25mg, it carries more than ten times the semaglutide of the injected version. NHS access depends on a NICE assessment Novo Nordisk has yet to initiate.
Our take: The appeal is obvious – a daily pill reaches people who would never inject. The catch is the dose: Wegovy compensates for how little semaglutide survives digestion by loading in far more of it, keeping manufacturing costs stubbornly high. Lilly’s orforglipron, by comparison, is a non-peptide small molecule, which is far cheaper to make at scale. Once orforglipron reaches the UK, Wegovy pills’ position becomes far more precarious, and Novo Nordisk knows it.
And finally…
🦎 Humans may have hidden regenerative powers (ScienceDaily): Texas A&M researchers have regrown amputated body parts in mice, restoring bone, joint, tendon and ligament after digit amputation, though imperfectly. The trick was two growth factors applied in sequence, FGF2 followed five days later by BMP2, which coaxed the wound’s own cells away from forming scar tissue and toward a salamander-like regrowth structure instead. BMP2 already holds FDA approval for spinal fusion and FGF2 is in multiple clinical trials.
Our take: The “hidden regenerative powers” headline writes itself, but the research team is more measured. The near-term prize is scar reduction, not limb regrowth. Fibrosis wrecks healing in burns, surgical wounds and amputations, and even a modest shift away from scarring would matter enormously to patients with no good option. Because both growth factors are already in or near the clinic, that prize could arrive far sooner than any regrown limb. Regeneration, alas, comes too late for this particular bird.
Tune in 🎧
🧠 The Woman Who Felt No Fear: Neuropsychologist Justin Feinstein recounts experiments with a patient whose non-functioning amygdala left her virtually fearless, and the single stimulus that finally triggered panic.
🕊️ Nikola Tesla Fell in Love with a Pigeon: Michael and Hannah explore the physics of Tesla coils and his vision for wireless electricity, alongside the stranger corners of his life – pearl phobias, hypnosis, and an unlikely devotion to one particular bird.
🤖 Cybernetics: Misha Glenny and guests trace how Norbert Wiener’s 1948 framework for studying communication, feedback and control across animals and machines laid the intellectual groundwork for the information age.
Apply ✍️
🎬 Director, CMC Regulatory Affairs, GSK: Got the instincts to steer small molecules through global regulatory scrutiny? You’ll lead CMC strategy across investigational and commercial programmes, identify risks, and keep patient supply firmly on course.
💪 Clinical Development Medical Director, Novartis: Fancy guiding neuromuscular therapies from trial to approval? You'll lead clinical strategy, drive regulatory submissions, and engage KOLs and advisory boards across Novartis's global neuroscience pipeline.
🔬 Senior Development Scientist, Portal Biotech: Keen to productise cutting-edge proteomics? You’ll lead experimental programmes, translate feasibility findings into platform-ready workflows, and manage a team at Portal’s White City headquarters.
RSVP 📆
🧬 22-25.06 | BIO International Convention | San Diego, USA: The world’s largest biotech gathering convenes 20,000+ global leaders across pharma, biotech, academia, government and investment, with a strong focus on business development through its BIO Partnering platform, enabling targeted one-to-one meetings.
🩻 23.06 | 9th Annual Workshop on Advances in X-ray Imaging | Manchester, UK: Join scientists from across fields to discuss developments and applications of various X-ray imaging and complementary techniques, and to build international collaborations.
👩🔬 08.07 | Women in Biotech - Canary Wharf | London, UK: Hosted by the BIA, this evening of panel discussion and networking gathers CFOs from across the biotech ecosystem to share candid perspectives on building investor relationships, raising capital and championing women in leadership. Open to all.
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