Orforglipron

iStock, Tamer Soliman In an interview with German-language outlet Neue Zuercher Zeitung , Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said the company is exploring ways to remove or minimize the drug price gap between the U.S. and its other markets in similarly developed countries. Novartis is exploring options to lower the prices of its medicines in the U.S., according to CEO Vas Narasimhan. This push from the company comes amidst President Donald Trump’s campaign to lower drug costs in the country. Narasimhan made the comments in an interview with German-language news outlet Neue Zuercher Zeitung , according to reporting from Bloomberg News on Saturday. Despite a potential price cut for its products, Narasimhan remains confident that Novartis will be able to deliver on its sales forecasts. “We’re working with the [U.S.] government to find constructive solutions so Americans pay less for their medicines,” Narasimhan said, adding that Novartis’ profits will continue to “grow faster than revenue.” The pharma doesn’t yet see the need to adjust its full-year guidance. “No matter what happens, under current U.S. law, any changes should be manageable,” the CEO said. Novartis is also currently looking at ways that it could remove or minimize the pharmaceutical price gap between the U.S. and other similarly developed countries, he added. Since taking office in January, Trump has made lowering drug costs a cornerstone of his policy push. In May, he signed an executive order on Most Favored Nation drug pricing, which seeks to lower drug pricing in the U.S. to the same level as in other economically comparable countries. Since executive orders lack legislative power, in late July, Trump directly appealed to the CEOs of 17 Big Pharma companies to comply with the policy “within the next 60 days.” Novartis is among these companies, alongside Bristol Myers Squibb, AbbVie, Gilead, Merck, Novo Nordisk and more. “If you refuse to step up, we will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued drug pricing practices,” Trump wrote in a letter to the heads of these companies. Also in July, the FDA announced it was looking at the possibility of leveraging its recently launched Commissioner’s Priority Review program to incentivize companies to lower drug prices. The voucher aims to shorten drug reviews to 1–2 months for companies that align with certain U.S. national priorities. When the agency opened its pilot program later that month, it named “increasing affordability” as one of these priorities. The voucher, it said at the time, could be given to a company “that lowers the U.S. price of a drug or drugs consistent with Most Favored Nation pricing.” Last week, Wall Street analysts speculated, according to Reuters, that Eli Lilly’s orforglipron could qualify for one of these vouchers, “as it treats a high-burden chronic condition and can be priced at parity.”

Welcome back to Endpoints Weekly! This week, our team gathered in Boston to honor 11 of the most promising biotech startups of 2025. Be sure to check out this year’s list of companies chasing bold ideas and making big scientific bets. Our team also covered a group of closely-watched meetings this week: former CDC Director Susan Monarez’s testimony before the Senate HELP Committee, and a meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Read more below. Elizabeth Cairns has the latest on Eli Lilly’s obesity pill data, and Kyle LaHucik reported on another big deal for Novartis, as well as Genmab’s decision to end work on an ADC. We’ll be back in your inbox on Monday! — Nicole DeFeudis 🏆 Meet the most exciting biotech startups of 2025 with this year’s Endpoints 11. From superintelligent AI and in vivo CAR-T in solid tumors, to oncolytic viruses and biologics-in-a-pill, this year’s winners are backed by big names in science and investing. Founding editor John Carroll broke down the winners in-depth here . Our team of reporters also profiled each of the 11 companies that earned the honor. In alphabetical order, this year’s winners are: Averna Therapeutics , Candid Therapeutics , Chai Discovery , Dispatch Bio , Judo Bio , Lila Sciences , Orbis Medicines , Sironax , Stylus Medicine , Third Arc Bio and Umoja Biopharma . Each profile is linked to the company names, where you can read more about them. And if you missed the event, an on-demand recording will be available soon! Former CDC Director Susan Monarez told senators this week that she was ousted from the agency after she declined to pre-commit to approving recommendations from the CDC’s panel of vaccine advisors and refused to fire career officials responsible for vaccine policy without cause. She testified before the Senate HELP Committee, along with former CDC chief medical officer Debra Houry, who resigned shortly after Monarez left the agency. The Endpoints team live-blogged the event here . During the hearing, both Monarez and Houry brought up concerns about the composition of ACIP, an advisory committee that makes recommendations on vaccine use in the US. Monarez said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not consult her before adding seven new members to the committee in June. Five additional members were announced this week . Monarez said she had not “prejudged” the committee’s meeting this week, but also said during her testimony that “there is real risk that recommendations could be made restricting access to vaccines for children and others in need without rigorous scientific review.” In a meeting the following day, ACIP voted not to recommend giving children under the age of 4 the combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine. The committee voted that children in that age group should instead receive separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and varicella vaccine. ACIP weighed the new MMRV guidance due to the slightly heightened risk of febrile seizures in kids 1 to 2 years old who receive the combo shot as their first dose of the regimen. A separate vote on whether to recommend delaying the hepatitis B birth dose if a pregnant woman tests negative for the virus was postponed. The committee also voted on Friday to recommend that all people 6 months and older receive consultation from a healthcare provider before getting a Covid-19 shot. 💊 Eli Lilly has outflanked Novo Nordisk in diabetes and obesity, but one area where Lilly’s drugs continue to lag is in the oral GLP-1 category. Additional Phase 3 results presented this week continue to underscore that advantage for Novo. In Lilly’s study, 55% of those given the pill, called orforglipron, had a body weight reduction of at least 10% when the dose was titrated up to 36 mg. That was a statistically significant improvement compared to the placebo group, where only 13% of participants achieved at least 10% weight reduction. But in a similar trial for Novo’s oral Wegovy, 63% of patients taking the drug saw at least the same level of weight reduction. Oral Wegovy also saw numerically greater benefits in the proportion of patients who lost at least 15% of their body weight: 50% who took oral Wegovy reached that marker, compared to 36% in the Lilly trial. Cross-trial comparisons like these are imperfect, but it may be years before oral Wegovy and orforglipron are pitted head-to-head in the same study, if ever. Researchers attributed some of the results to the gender differences between the studies. About 36% of patients in the Lilly trial were male, compared to 21% male in the Novo study. GLP-1 drugs are known to be more effective in women than men, study leader Sean Wharton said at a press conference in Vienna where the data were presented. Read more here from senior biopharma journalist Elizabeth Cairns, who has been following the GLP-1 space closely. 🤝 The deal comes with $120 million upfront, and is focused on an undisclosed discovery target and the option to license two preclinical immunology programs. It’s the second deal Novartis has made with Monte Rosa. Last October, Novartis signed a deal with the developer of molecular glue degraders that was worth $150 million upfront and $2.1 billion in milestones. The latest deal “allows us to do more with more,” Monte Rosa chief business and legal officer Phil Nickson said in an interview with Endpoints’ Kyle LaHucik. Novartis has been on a dealmaking spree the last couple months. The pharma company announced last week that it’s buying Tourmaline Bio for $1.4 billion. It also inked multibillion-dollar siRNA collaborations with Argo Biopharmaceutical and Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, and a $772 million partnership with BioArctic, LaHucik reported. Genmab spent $1.8 billion to acquire ProfoundBio last year, but it’s already decided to cull some of the pipeline. In an announcement this week, Genmab said it would stop development of an early-stage antibody-drug conjugate from ProfoundBio. The drug, known as GEN1107 or PRO1107, was in a Phase 1/2 study for various solid tumors, including ovarian, endometrial, and urothelial cancers. GEN1107 was designed to target PTK7, which is of interest to a handful of other biopharma companies. Eli Lilly, Sichuan Kelun Pharmaceutical and Day One Biopharmaceuticals are also researching PTK7-targeted ADCs. GEN1107 was also one of three clinical-stage programs Genmab picked up in the ProfoundBio buyout.