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Good morning. Let’s get straight into the news today.

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So, too, is the vast, unexplored drug-hunting territory of chemical space, waiting to be illuminated by data’s light.

Every AI model trained for biology only can see what’s illuminated by the data points it is trained on. AlphaFold succeeded in predicting protein structures because the 200,000 or so known protein structures in the Protein Data Bank covered enough of the limited ways amino acids can combine that the model was able to understand what almost the entire protein structure space looked like. But ask the PDB for only the structures where proteins are hugging other proteins or — even rarer — interacting with drug-like molecules, and there’s nowhere near enough illumination for AI biology models to understand what the topography of those plains look like, much less make useful predictions for drug discovery.

Life sciences data company Apheris on Thursday announced an effort to boost the capabilities of protein AI models by uniting several pharmaceutical companies’ proprietary data. Apheris’ consortium of pharma companies is partnering with OpenFold3 — Columbia professor Mohammed AlQuraishi’s open-source dupe of AlphaFold3 — to train the model on AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson’s vast stores of structural data. The collaboration will focus on structures relevant to drug discovery, such as small molecule-protein and antibody-antigen interactions. 

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Good morning. The MAHA movement is influencing not only the federal government, but also state legislatures across the U.S. We discuss all that and the key biotech news today.

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After all, the neurons could use all the help they can get, would you not agree? Meanwhile, here are a few items of interest for you to digest as you embark on your own journey today, which we hope is meaningful and satisfying. On that note, time to hustle. Best of luck, and do keep in touch. …

Prominent outside scientists who help the U.S. National Institutes of Health evaluate its internal research programs are being abruptly removed, according to five advisers whose positions were terminated and a recording of an internal meeting obtained by STAT. The motivations behind the removals from the agency boards of scientific counselors remain unclear. But among those being terminated are non-U.S. citizens, women, scientists from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, and individuals whose research focus or other work touches on areas the new administration considers taboo, such as diversity and equity. The removals come amid a broader attempt by the Trump administration to align health agencies with the president’s views on DEI, gender, immigration, and other issues, by terminating grants mentioning words like “diversity” or focused on environmental justice, while explicitly targeting such employees for removal.

GSK has teamed up with two research organizations in the U.K. to explore a possible link between its shingles vaccine Shingrix and a reduced risk of dementia, Pharmaphorum says. The tantalizing hypothesis — drawn from observational and retrospective studies — is that vaccination against shingles can help protect against dementia in the following years. To test it prospectively, GSK will work with the UK Dementia Research Institute and Health Data Research UK to use de-identified, population-level electronic health data from the National Health Service to look at the impact of shingles vaccination on dementia risk. Their study will look at real-world data from around 1.4 million people aged 65 and 66 at the time that the U.K. expanded its shingles national immunization program in 2023. Research has already shown that vaccines against shingles potentially reduce the risk of dementia, but past studies only identified associations, not causality.

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Pharmalot and the rotation will likely include this, this, this, this and this. And what about you? Once again, we maintain there is no better time to enjoy the great outdoors. And as seasonal festivities approach, you could start searching for the great pumpkin or, if you are particularly ambitious and visit the correct locales, you could hunt down your own turkey. For those inclined to hang around Gotham, there are always museums and moving picture shows to take in. Or you could hide indoors with a good book. Well, whatever you do, have a grand time. But be safe. Enjoy, and see you soon. …

CVS Health is naming longtime executive David Joyner as its new chief, succeeding Karen Lynch at the helm of the struggling health care giant, The Wall Street Journal writes. Joyner has been president of CVS Caremark, the company’s pharmacy benefit manager, as well as an executive vice president of CVS. He is set to take over as president and chief executive on Friday. CVS is making the changes after repeatedly cutting its forecasts for this year’s financial performance, moves that led to a 19% decline in its share price this year, a push for changes by a major hedge fund, and a board review of strategy that included the option of breaking up the company. Joyner will face a difficult task. Not only must he turn around CVS’s Aetna health insurance business, but he must also contend with U.S. Federal Trade Commission scrutiny of pharmacy benefit giants including Caremark. CVS also faces longstanding challenges in the retail pharmacy business. 

Donald Trump has backed off his ambitious plans to slash U.S. drug prices and repeal the Affordable Care Act, leaving something of a vacuum in his health policy agenda. One former Trump White House official says the policy ideas are there — but enacting them could take messy fights, STAT tells us. The official, Joe Grogan, said Republicans will need to repeal or revisit President Biden’s signature drug pricing law and expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies, should Trump take office. Trump had previously proposed tying U.S. drug prices to a basket of payments made by similarly wealthy countries, but has retreated from that approach. Grogan said this is because Biden’s plan to let Medicare negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies, passed in the Inflation Reduction Act, changed the landscape. As the provisions go into effect, this has raised premiums, which Grogan forecasted could cause a “death spiral” in Medicare Part D, the program’s prescription drug benefit.

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So grab that cup of stimulation and get started. Our flavor today is tiramisu, for those tracking our habits. Now, though, the time has come to get busy. So please grab your own cup and dig in to the items of interest assembled below. We hope you have a wonderful day, and please do keep in touch. …

A major California health insurer is set to offer one of the world’s top-selling drugs for free in a bid to show the medicine can reach Americans affordably without going through the middlemen that typically control its flow, The Los Angeles Times says. Blue Shield of California struck an unusual deal to buy a lower-cost version of Humira directly from a manufacturer, bypassing the giant pharmacy benefit managers that normally determine which maker’s drug will go to tens of millions of Americans. AbbVie’s Humira has been a prime example of how drug prices can stay high even after drugmakers lose patent protection. Sales of Humira, at one point the world’s top-selling drug, were $14 billion last year even after low-cost versions hit the market. Blue Shield of California currently spends more than $100 million a year on Humira, more than any other drug. The new lower prices and lack of fees for middlemen should result in a savings of $20 million over three years, executives said, adding that the figure might be a low estimate.

In response to increased criticism of its pricing, Gilead Sciences has reached voluntary licensing deals with companies to make generic versions of its twice-yearly HIV medicine, lenacapavir, in 120 mostly low- and lower-middle-income countries, STAT reports. The move comes after a pair of late-stage clinical trials found the injectable medicine was highly effective in preventing HIV, paving the way for the company to seek regulatory approval for pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. The results generated considerable excitement since a daily pill is nearly 100% effective but compliance is spotty and there is a stigma attached to regularly taking a drug for HIV. But its impact on addressing an epidemic that, as of 2022, still led to more than 1 million new infections each year is uncertain. And the reason is pricing. Lenacapavir is already approved for treating HIV but has a hefty price tag of $42,250. So patient advocates have been urging the company to reach a licensing deal but also lower its price. The criticism was heightened after a recent analysis found that the medicine could be made for as little as $26 to $40 a year. As a result, Gilead is hoping its licensing plan will appease critics.  

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Good morning. Today, we look at the biggest biotech events to watch this quarter. And as my editor had to remind me (since I’m still in denial), we are indeed in the fourth quarter now.

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This story first appeared in The Readout newsletter. Sign up for The Readout and receive STAT’s award-winning biotech news delivered straight to your inbox. 

Good morning. It’s another busy news day, and I’m layering up at home to avoid turning the heater on. Fall is officially here.

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We are doing our best to maintain sunny spirits, though, because once again, we recall some helpful wisdom from the Morning Mayor, who taught us that “every new day should be unwrapped like a precious gift.” To celebrate the notion, we are brewing still more cups of stimulation and inviting you to join us. Our choice today is orange cream, for those tracking our habits. Meanwhile, here are a few items of interest. Hope you have a meaningful and productive day and, of course, do stay in touch. …

Express Scripts, which is one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the U.S., filed a lawsuit demanding that a recent Federal Trade Commission report accusing the industry middlemen of raising drug prices should be vacated, STAT tells us. In scathing language, the company argued the report was “seventy-four pages of unsupported innuendo leveled … under a false and defamatory headline.” The lawsuit also alleged the FTC “followed prejudice and politics, not evidence or sound economics, and wrongly concluded that PBMs inflate drug costs and harm independent pharmacies.” FTC Chair Lina Khan was also accused of “anti-PBM bias.”

Antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections directly caused more than 1 million deaths worldwide annually from 1990 to 2021, and that number is projected to increase by almost 70% over the next 25 years, MedPage Today writes, citing an analysis in The Lancet. In 2021, 1.14 million deaths that were attributable to bacterial antimicrobial resistance occurred across the globe, slightly higher than the 1.06 million AMR-attributable deaths in 1990. Bacterial AMR was also associated with an estimated 4.71 million deaths in 2021, about the same as in 1990. By 2050, the researchers forecast that an estimated 1.91 million AMR-attributable deaths and 8.22 million AMR-associated deaths could occur every year worldwide. From 2025 to 2050, a cumulative 39.1 million deaths attributable to AMR could occur.

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Good morning. If you’re following the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting that starts tomorrow, sign up for our ESMO in 30 Seconds newsletter. My colleague Drew Joseph is on the ground in Barcelona (and I’m very jealous of him).

Onto the biotech news of the day.

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