Alnylam’s sales chief steps down. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals announced on November 5 that Chief Commercial Officer Tolga Tanguler is leaving the company, and that it is working with an executive search firm to find his replacement, with an investor update promised in due course. The company credited Tanguler with establishing a strong foundation for future growth. The departure lands on a weak share price: Alnylam stock is down about 60 percent this year on concern about the sales trajectory of Amvuttra, its top drug, whose growth rate visibility one William Blair analyst described on November 6 as murky at best.
ANI offers 560 million dollars for Egetis. ANI Pharmaceuticals on November 5 offered to acquire Swedish rare disease developer Egetis Therapeutics for 560 million dollars, bidding 11.25 Swedish krona per share, a 27 percent premium to the average trading price over the previous two months. Egetis sells Emcitate, the only approved treatment in the United States and Europe for peripheral thyrotoxicosis in people with Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome. ANI expects the drug to generate as much as 300 million dollars in peak annual sales. The offer is a bid, not an agreed deal, and no Egetis board response was reported in the source.
Ultragenyx cuts 1,000 jobs. Ultragenyx will cut 1,000 employees, about 20 percent of its workforce, to reduce research and development costs, the company said in its earnings report on November 3. The restructuring follows the September Phase 3 failure of its Angelman syndrome gene therapy, which had been viewed as a blockbuster opportunity. Ultragenyx is halting all studies of that therapy and shelving a Wilson’s disease candidate, moves it expects to lower 2027 research spending by at least 50 percent compared with 2025.
Novo’s pursuit of Lilly, recapped. Endpoints published a third quarter earnings recap on November 7 framing Novo Nordisk’s race to catch Eli Lilly in obesity. The recap analyses results already covered in previous editions of this brief and reports no new figures, so it is noted here for the framing rather than re-reported as news. The Lilly distribution deal covered in full in today’s edition, putting Zepbound and Foundayo on the Hims platform at the same self pay prices as Novo’s medicines, is the week’s concrete move in that contest.