Ep. 181 - Highlights from ASCO

ASCO’s kickoff included blunt comments from two CEOs who said the IRA is causing their companies to delay launches of cancer drugs for smaller indications, BioCentury Washington Editor Steve Usdin said on the latest BioCentury This Week podcast. Usdin and his BioCentury colleagues discussed remarks at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference by Novartis' Vasant Narasimhan and Genentech's Alexander Hardy regarding how the Inflation Reduction Act is forcing the companies to make difficult decisions regarding their pipelines and patients’ access to their therapies.
The podcast team also assessed highlights from ASCO’s data presentations, including antibody-drug conjugate readouts from partners AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo, and Kelun Pharmaceutical and Merck & Co., as well as the emergence of Alkeus, which has attracted $150 million in series B money for its Stargardt program and Joshua Boger to its executive chairman position. This week’s podcast is sponsored by Cancer Research Horizons.