Even after a flurry of corporate updates during the first two days of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, many more companies are set to take the stage on Wednesday.
Today, we're tracking presentations from AbbVie, UCB, WuXi AppTec and several other biopharma firms. Aside from JPM conference coverage, our reporters are making their way around town for one-on-one interviews. Check back here for the latest updates from Wednesday at JPM.
You can find Fierce Pharma's coverage from day 1 here and day 2 here. Fierce Biotech's day 1 coverage is here and its day 2 coverage is here.
9:30 p.m. ET
After its sudden rise and precipitous fall during the COVID-19 pandemic, Emergent BioSolutions is trying to reestablish its unique role as a drug developer combating urgent public health threats. During the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, the Maryland company laid out its plan.
“We are focused on first stabilizing the company, then turning it around and ultimately transforming the company. It’s a multi-year process,” added Papa, who took the reins of Emergent in February of 2024.
One of its small steps came on Tuesday when the company revealed that it has gained exclusive commercial rights in the U.S. and Canada to Kloxxado, an emergency nasal spray for opioid overdose, from Hikma Pharmaceuticals.
2:30 p.m. ET
After revenue declines in the previous three years, UCB did a turnaround in 2024 and now is expecting a “decade plus” of growth, the company said in a press release issued Wednesday ahead of its presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
The catalyst for the rebound has been Bimzelx, which was approved for plaque psoriasis in October of 2023 and is on track to achieve blockbuster sales in 2025. In the last four months of 2024, the FDA tacked on nods for Bimzelx to treat psoriatic arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and hidradenitis suppurativa.
Bimzelx was one of three FDA new drug approvals that the Belgian company received in 2023. The others were for a pair of generalized myasthenia gravis treatments—Rystiggo and Zilbrysq.
Next month, the company expects to report a significant increase in revenue from 5.2 billion euros ($5.8 billion) in 2023 to approximately 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) in 2024.
12:55 p.m. ET
The remarkable success of Skyrizi and Rinvoq has allowed AbbVie to accomplish the daunting task of compensating for the loss of exclusivity for powerhouse Humira. And now the immunology duo has paved the way for a “clear runway to growth over the next eight years,” CEO Rob Michael said Wednesday at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
That runway has allowed the company to narrow its business development strategy. In 2024, the company struck 20 deals "all focused on early-stage opportunities," Michael said. “As we think about elevating standard of care, a big focus for us is what mechanisms can combine with Skyrizi and Rinvoq to allow us to drive that future differentiation."
As for the short term, after a 6% decline in revenue in 2023, AbbVie returned to modest growth in 2024 and 2025 figures to be a return to “robust growth," according to the CEO. Through 2029, the company envisions sales will grow in the high-single-digit percentages.
12:20 p.m. ET
Late Tuesday, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks took to the stage at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference to explain his views of the booming GLP-1 space. Earlier in the day, Lilly warned investors that it would miss its 2024 sales guidance, blaming the shortfall on an overestimation of the market's growth trajectory.
Outside of the GLP-1 market, Lilly expects a host of new drugs to drive growth in 2025 and beyond. "The rest of the portfolio performed incredibly well," Ricks said Tuesday. "If you stripped away incretins and GLP-1s from the pharma sector, the balance of Lilly would probably be the fastest-growing big company in the sector."
10:30 a.m. ET
Despite challenges in the CDMO industry, Samsung Biologics is "well positioned to kick-start a new phase of growth in 2025," CEO John Rim said in a press release ahead of his Tuesday presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
The company is in the process of opening its fifth manufacturing facility, and it's weighing a plan to build a sixth.
The corporate update came shortly after Samsung Bio revealed its largest production contract in company history.