STAT+: We’re reading about drug pricing deals, a new cancer therapy approval, and more

Good morning and greetings from Pharmalot’s New York bureau. Jason Mast here filling in. Today, I’m still listening to the music recommendation from Pharmalittle’s Friday dispatch — I’ll admit that until today my Traffic knowledge started and ended with a certain saxophone-flecked 1971 hit — and trying to celebrate the coming autumn, rather than mourn the end of summer. Here’s today news:

Bayer, Takeda, and CSL Behring — alongside several mid-sized drugmakers — are part of the new drug pricing deals the White House is expected to announce Monday, the Financial Times reports. The agreements are the latest in a slate of deals the Trump administration has signed with major drugmakers, generally extracting drug pricing concessions in exchange for salary relief — although it’s been unclear how meaningful the drug pricing concessions are. 

The FDA approved Takeda and Protagonist’s drug for a slow-growing cancer, STAT tells us. The weekly injection, called Mimrylo, is approved to treat polycythemia vera, a cancer marked by the overproduction of red blood cells. The cells thicken a patient’s blood, putting them at higher risk for life-threatening heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots. The companies did not disclose a price.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…