STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about Novartis and Bristol pausing cell therapy trials, a $480K cancer drug, and more

Pharmalittle reports on recent developments in the pharmaceutical industry. President Trump has announced new pricing agreements with nine drug manufacturers, joining the 17 that have already reached deals. These agreements include promises to sell medications to U.S. patients at comparable prices to the lowest prices in peer countries, offer drugs to state Medicaid programs at "most-favored nation" prices, and bolster domestic manufacturing and medical stockpiles.

However, the specific terms of the new agreements have not been made public, and their potential impact on drug costs and accessibility remains unclear. Meanwhile, Novartis and Bristol Myers Squibb have paused trials of their respective cell therapy programs due to inflammatory side effects observed in testing. In Novartis' trials of the CAR-T rap-cel, three patients died from a dangerous immune system reaction, while Bristol Myers has voluntarily halted enrollment in autoimmune trials evaluating its CAR-T treatment, zola-cel.

It is possible that both rap-cel and zola-cel are being developed using technology aimed at speeding up production compared to earlier CAR-T products.