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Corvus Pharmaceuticals’ therapy for severe atopic dermatitis is heading to mid-stage trials this quarter following an update from an ongoing Phase 1 study that met analysts’ best-case scenario. The new data cut shows that, among patients given soquelitinib for eight weeks, 75% met a benchmark known as EASI 75 — a commonly used endpoint in eczema trials that indicates improvement of at least 75% in the extent and severity of the dermatitis lesions. A quarter of the patients achieved EASI 90, a more stringent measure, and 33% of soquelitinib-treated patients achieved IGA 0 or 1. IGA is a scoring system where patients’ skin is assessed by healthcare professionals; a score of 0 means a patient’s skin was totally clear of dermatitis, and a score of 1 means almost totally clear. The data came from the fourth cohort in Corvus’ Phase 1 trial. Earlier data from the study, released in May, showed that 63% of patients in the third cohort, who were given 200 mg twice daily for just under a month, hit the EASI 75 mark. Cohort 4 consisted of 12 subjects who took the pill on the same dosing schedule for eight weeks and 12 who took a matching placebo, though two of the placebo patients were lost to follow-up. Of the evaluable placebo patients, 20% hit EASI 75 at eight weeks, and none hit EASI 90 or IGA 0 or 1. In a Dec. 29 note, Jefferies analysts wrote that soquelitinib would have a “best-in-disease” profile if the cohort 4 data showed a 50-percentage-point delta over placebo on EASI 75 and a 25-point delta on IGA 0/1. The actual margins over placebo were 55 and 33 points, respectively. The mean reduction in EASI for soquelitinib recipients in cohort 4 was 72%, versus 40% for placebo. Corvus said the drug was active in patients who had taken prior systemic therapies, including those who had not responded to drugs, including JAK inhibitors such as AbbVie’s Rinvoq and Pfizer’s Cibinqo, or the best-known dermatitis blockbuster, Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent, an IL-4 and IL-13 blocker. Half the patients in the fourth cohort had been treated before. Soquelitinib itself has the novel mechanism of ITK blockade. ITK is a tyrosine kinase enzyme expressed in T cells, and is believed to be a cause of inflammation. Safety in cohort 4 was fairly clean, with side effects occurring in 41.7% of soquelitinib patients and 50% of placebo patients. None prompted dose modifications or interruptions, and no severe or serious adverse events were seen. Corvus said the new data justified pushing the pill into the mid-stage trial, which will start in the first quarter of 2026. The Phase 2 will enroll patients with moderate to severe disease who have failed on at least one other topical or systemic therapy, and will consist of four cohorts of 50 patients each. These will test soquelitinib doses of: 200 mg once per day, 200 mg twice per day, and 400 mg once per day; the fourth cohort will be a placebo group. The drug will be given for three months, but the endpoints will be assessed a month after treatment ends.

With news continuing to pour in from San Francisco, be sure to check back throughout this week for the latest. The first two days of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference are in the books, and attendees are now pushing through to finish strong. Today, UCB, AbbVie and Legend Biotech are among the companies presenting at the conference. And like the past two days, Fierce reporters and editors are busy on the ground meeting with industry leaders to bring you all the news from the event.For updates from prior days, here are our trackers from day 1 and day 2.And for the biotech side of the business, check out Fierce Biotech's day 1 and day 2 JPM trackers.  UPDATE: 2:29 p.m. ETAs Legend Biotech’s J&J-partnered CAR-T cell therapy Carvykti continues its ascent in multiple myeloma, the company is aiming to reach a key financial milestone in 2026, CEO Ying Huang, Ph.D., said at the JPM conference Wednesday.Namely, this is the year that Legend expects to achieve profitability, Huang said, noting that the company already hit positive operating profit for Carvykti in 2025’s third quarter.“Few companies in our sector combine this commercial scale and also next-generation pipeline optionality that Legend has,” he said. “This year, we expect to become a profitable, fully scaled CAR-T leader.”Taking a closer look at the numbers, Carvykti—which has now reached more than 10,000 patients—ginned up roughly $1.7 billion in sales for the 12 months that ended with last year’s third quarter, Legend noted in a conference presentation. Remarking on that performance, Huang noted that Carvykti has enjoyed the “fastest launch among CAR-T therapies to date,” reiterating Legend and J&J’s annual peak sales estimate for the drug of more than $5 billion.As with other CAR-Ts, manufacturing is a crucial component of—and potential limiting factor in—access to Legend’s one-time therapy. On that front, Legend noted that “all” of the facilities in its manufacturing network are now online, covering locations in Belgium and New Jersey. The company currently boasts a median turnaround time of fewer than 30 days to produce the product and get it back to patients, whom it treats at 279 treatment sites globally, 141 of which have been activated in the U.S.As of 2026, Legend says it boasts an annualized capacity for Carvkyti of 10,000 doses. Not content to rest on its laurels, however, Legend aims to boost that yearly capacity to 20,000 doses “in the next three years,” Huang said. UPDATE: 2:20 p.m. ET AbbVie is looking at a “clear line of sight” to continue its growth journey for its key products well into the 2030s, chief financial officer Scott Reents said during a fireside chat Wednesday at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. The exec pointed to “very strong momentum of the business,” resulting in 8% revenue growth during 2025, with sales in its growth platform specifically climbing 19% versus the prior year.AbbVie’s performance leans heavily on immunology blockbusters Skyrizi and Rinvoq, two “exceptional products” that have still have room to capture additional share in the immunology market over the next decade, chief commercial officer Jeffrey Stewart added. Part of the company's confidence comes from the ten head-to-head trials it's planning against “all major mechanisms” in “most of the major indications,” in theory giving the drugs a chance to show off their strengths, the exec said.At the same time, specific immunology markets such as psoriatic arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are “great markets” that “cascade on top of each other” and expand each year, Stewart added.Much like how AbbVie built up its Skyrizi and Rinvoq as successors to its off-patent Humira, Johnson & Johnson has done the same with Tremfya as biosimilars challenge the New Jersey pharma's Stelara. AbbVie considers Tremfya’s market performance “in line with what we thought,” Stewart said, and hasn’t seen any degradation of its “strong” new patient starts for Skyrizi as a result of the competition.Skyrizi’s largest indication is in psoriasis, where it holds over 60% of the market among first-line patients, according to AbbVie. This is an area in which Tremfya has already been cranking up the competition for several years now.“Tremfya is a good competitor. It’s a strong drug,” Stewart said. But the exec is clear that “it’s not a zero-sum game” and that it's not exactly as simple as “one over the other.”Combination therapies will be a key aspect to Skyrizi and Rinvoq’s growth journeys, with CEO Robert Michael citing a combo as the way to clear the efficacy bar that the drugs on their own have already established.UPDATE: 1:50 p.m. ET Agios is projecting (PDF) $1 billion-plus in peak sales potential for its two mitapivat treatments. Aqvesme, an oral medicine which was approved by the FDA three weeks ago, is for the treatment of anemia in adults with alpha- or beta-thalassemia, while Pyrukynd is on the market for the rare, genetic blood disorder pyruvate kinase deficiency (PKD).The separate brand names for what is essentially the same agent is to distinguish Aqvesme and its Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program for liver monitoring in thalassemia from Pyrukynd, which has no REMS requirement in PKD.“This is in so many ways an historical moment for the thalassemia community that has waited for this for decades,” Agios CEO Brian Goff said Wednesday at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. “We’re really proud of this profile. It puts us in a great position to make Aqvesme the standard of care in thalassemia.”UPDATE: 1:45 p.m. ETWuXi Biologics has been busy in recent months, and heading into 2026 the contract research, development, and manufacturing organization (CRDMO) has no plans to slow down, CEO Chris Chen, Ph.D., said during his company’s presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Wednesday.All told, WuXi Biologics lassoed 209 integrated projects across its CRDMO business in 2025, compared to 150 in 2024, Chen said, noting that roughly two-thirds of those contracts cover bi- or multispecifics or antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Half of those projects are also based out of the U.S., Chen added.All told, WuXi Biologics is now engaged with 74 late-stage and 25 commercial programs, according to a company presentation (PDF) prepared for the event.Chen noted that WuXi Biologics’ manufacturing revenue might look slightly lower than its peers because many of the commercial projects it’s partnered on are just now launching, stressing that sales streams from those collaborations will continue to increase. “In the meantime, we keep adding more programs into the funnel,” he said, referring to WuXi Bio’s continued uptake of new projects.The CEO also took time to reflect on WuXi Bio’s growing manufacturing footprint. In the U.S. where, the company boasts facilities for drug substance, drug product and process development, WuXi Biologics and its conjugation spinoff WuXi XDC have raised their total investment plan to about $1 billion, according to the CEO.The company is also setting up an end-to-end biologics hub in Singapore that's expected to start generating revenue this year, Chen said.Elsewhere, WuXi Bio is putting down roots in a sixth country with the memorandum of understanding it signed with the Qatar Free Zones Authority back in December, Chen pointed out. UPDATE: 10:20 a.m. ETAstraZeneca may have had its share of doubters when the company in 2024 shared the goal to generate $80 billion in annual sales by 2030. But as the company's pipeline and launch cadence comes into clearer focus, it's winning over nonbelievers.At JPM on Tuesday, AZ CFO Aradhana Sarin stressed that the goal is “very much within reach,” particularly if AZ is able to continue its winning streak in the clinic. StoryUPDATE: 10:15 a.m. ETDuring his debut appearance at JPM, Novo Nordisk's new CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar didn’t hesitate to acknowledge the company’s “difficult 2025.” The plan for 2026, he said, is to focus on commercial execution in the "consumer"-style obesity market, advance Novo's pipeline in select disease areas and balance financial discipline while “investing where the investments are needed.”A big focus for Novo this year will be direct-to-patient sales programs in the United States as the company continues to face fierce obesity competition from Eli Lilly—and as new players make moves to enter the space. Story