With Yescarta’s annual sales of $456 million in 2019 and Kymriah catching up, the acquisition price paid in 2017 by Gilead was indeed very high.
In its 19Q4 earnings, Gilead disclosed an $800 million write-down related to a Kite Pharma setback in indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma. That followed an $820 million write-down this time last year related to Kite’s multiple myeloma candidate KITE-585. [fiercepharma]
The competition will become more fierce as BMY just submitted application for its CAR-T therapy acquired from Celgene (Celgene acquired from Juno) -lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel). The treatment is also for adult patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) after at least two prior therapies.
BMY’s data: among patients evaluable for efficacy (n=256), the overall response rate (ORR) was 73% (187/256, 95% CI: 67 – 78) with 53% of patients (136/256, 95% CI: 47 – 59) achieving a complete response (CR). Responses were similar across all patient subgroups. Among all patients, 79% (213/269) had grade 3 or higher treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAE). Instances of any grade cytokine release syndrome (CRS) occurred in 42% (113/269) of patients at a median onset of 5 days and grade 3 or higher CRS occurring in 2% (6/269) of patients.
CAR-T therapies have shown superior effects in treating blood cancers. Kymriah’s initial approved indication is B-cell precursor ALL that is refractory or in second or later relapse for patients up to 25 years of age. There are approximately 3,100 patients aged 20 and younger are diagnosed with ALL each year; 15-20 percent of pediatric B cell precursor ALL patients relapse after their initial remission.
On Aug 28, 11 days after Kymriah’s approval, another CAR-T cell therapy company Kite Pharma was acquired by Gilead for $11.9 billion. The $180.00 per share acquisition price represents a 29% premium to Kite’s closing on Friday, August 25, and a 50% premium to the company’s 30-day volume weighted average stock price.
At the time of acquisition, Kite’s lead candidate was under FDA’s priority review and had submitted the first CAR-T therapy application in Europe for the treatment of relapsed/refractory DLBCL, TFL and PMBCL with the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
On Oct 18, FDA approved Kite’s Yescarta for use in adult patients with large B-cell lymphoma after at least two other kinds of treatment failed, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, high grade B-cell lymphoma and DLBCL arising from follicular lymphoma. DLBCL is the most common type of NHL in adults, with 24,000 new cases diagnosed each year in the US (1/3 of newly diagnosed NHL).
Concurrently, in Gilead’s press release, it estimated that in the US each year there are approximately 7,500 patients with refractory DLBCL who are eligible for CAR T therapy.
In August 2018, Yescarta received European Marketing Authorization for adult patients with relapsed or refractory DLBCL and PMBCL, after two or more lines of systemic therapy; Kymriah was approved in EU for the treatment of pediatric and young adult patients up to 25 years of age with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that is refractory, in relapse post-transplant or in second or later relapse; and for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory (r/r) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) after two or more lines of systemic therapy.
lower limit of the 95% confidence interval for ORR is 70.9%, which is above the pre-set null hypothesis rate of 20%
40 subjects (63.5%) had the best response of CR within the first 3 months after infusion
12 subjects (19.0%) had the best response of CRi.
Among the 52 responders, the median duration of response (DOR) was not yet reached (range: 1.2 to 14.1+ months) with the median follow-up of 4.8 months.
84% (n=57) experienced Grade 3 or higher events
Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) occurred in 79% of patients; CRS Grade 3 or higher occurred in 49% of patients
On ASH 2018, Novartis presented an updated ORR rate of 82.3% (n=65/79); relapse-free survival was 62% at 24 months.
r/r DLBCL
Yescarta was approved in 2017 based on an ORR of 72% (n=73/101), with a CR rate of 51%. SAEs Grade 3 or higher occurred in 48 (44%) patients. CRS occurred in 94% of patients; CRS Grade 3 or higher occurred in 13% of patients.
When Kymriah was approved for r/r DLBCL in 2018, the overall response rate (ORR) was 50% at 3 months (n=34/68). On ASH 2019, in the 24-month analysis of the JULIET trial, ORR was 52% (N=115).
Founded in February 2005, with $11.5 million total venture funding and 65 employees at that time, Youtube commanded 46% of visits to U.S. online-video sites in September. That compared with a 21% share for the video activities of News Corp.’s MySpace site and 11% for Google Video. Youtube had close to 20 million monthly visitors in August 2006.
Back then, Google reported total revenues of $6.14 billion in 2005 and $10.60 billion in 2006, and had a market value of $132 billion. Its net income was $3 billion in 2006 with $3.6 billion cash flow from operations and more than $11 billion cash balance.
On Monday Feb 3, 2020, Alphabet first provided the breakdown for some of its non-Google-search businesses, including Youtube.
Year Ended December 31,
2017
2018
2019
Google Search & other
$
69,811
$
85,296
$
98,115
YouTube ads(1)
8,150
11,155
15,149
(1) YouTube non-advertising revenues are included in Google other revenues.
Dots to connect: Gilead’s drug Remdesivir for Ebola, Abbvie’s Kaletra (Lopinavir/Ritonavir), Roche’s Tamiflu, Oseltamivir generic versions, JNJ’s Prezista, restaurant/coffee chains Yum China, Luckin Coffee, Starbuck, airline industry, drop in demand for oil and oil prices, other travel related industries such as Trip.com and Huazhu, second-order effects on internet-based services & healthcare services investments, etc.
This week, Suntory unveiled a limited edition 55-year-old Yamazaki single malt whisky, which it will sell for 3 million yen ($27,347.31) a bottle. Only 100 bottles will be sold from June 30, and buyers will be chosen by lottery. Blended from whisky matured in mizunara and white oak casks, the edition will be the oldest version of Yamazaki.
The company in 2005 sold a limited edition of a 50-year-old Yamazaki for 1 million yen. One of them auctioned by Bonhams in Hong Kong in 2018 fetched HK$2.695 million.
Before that, the demand for the Hibiki 12 year has become unsustainable and in 2015 Suntory announced it would be discontinuing the expression.
Currently the most commonly seen versions for Yamazaki are 12yr, 18yr, 30yr and Distiller’s Reserve (no age).
Source: whisky.suntory.com
The Distiller’s Reserve version was launched in 2014, containing a range of liquid aged from around eight to 20 years. Blended by Suntory chief blender Shinji Fukuyo, the Yamazaki Distiller’s Reserve is a vatting of whisky matured in French oak Bordeaux wine casks, Sherry casks, mizunara casks (Japanese oak) and American oak casks, with some peated malt added. [thespiritsbusiness]
The founder of Suntory, Shinjirō Torii (born in 1879), started with selling imported wine in Osaka in 1899.
Incorporation – the store became the Kotobukiya company in 1921.
In 1923, the Yamazaki Distillery was constructed – Japan’s first malt whisky distillery. It was built in the town called Yamazaki 山崎町 (now in Shisō 宍粟市, Hyōgo 兵库县), on the periphery of Kyoto. This region was formerly referred to as “Minaseno”, where one of the purest waters of Japan originates. Yamazaki Distillery is where the Katsura, Uji and Kizu rivers converge, providing a unique misty climate and one of Japan’s softest waters. The diversity of this region’s temperature and humidity creates ideal conditions for cask aging, known as the signature “Suntory Maturation”.
Source: whisky.suntory.com
Production began in 1924 and five years later it launched Japan’s first single-malt whisky Suntory Whisky Shirofuda (white label) in 1929.
Keizo Saji (Torii’s son) becomes 2nd president in 1961 (at age of 42); Shinjirō Torii passed away in 1962.
In 1963, Kotobukiya changed its name to “Suntory” from “Torysan”, taken from the name of the whisky it produces.
In the same year, Musashino Beer Factory (in Fuchū 府中市, Tokyo 东京都) began its production of the Suntory Beer.
In 1972, Keizo built Chita Distillery on the shores of Chita Peninsula (Chita 知多市, Aichi 爱知县).
Source: whisky.suntory.com
In 1973, Hakushu Distillery was established, in the Toribara locality of the former town of Hakushū 白州町 (now part of Hokuto 北杜市 in Yamanashi 山梨县), It is located in the foothills of Mt. Kaikomagatake.
Source: whisky.suntory.com
1980s – Distilleries Becoming Brands
Until the 1980s, whisky made at Yamazaki was bottled as Suntory blends. It began to market their distilleries in the way the Scottish market theirs, by branding the whisky for the distillery at which it is made. [Japanese Whisky Handbook by Gary Clark]
Saji pioneered the distillery’s move into single malt whisky in 1984, with the launch of Suntory Single Malt Whisky Yamazaki – the first time Yamazaki is used as the brand name. This was followed by Yamazaki 18 Years Old in 1992. [thespiritsbusiness]
In 1989, the 90th anniversary of the company’s founding, Suntory Hibiki was released. It is a blended whisky using whiskies from the three distilleries Yamazaki, Hakushu, and Chita.
Source: whisky.suntory.com
Shinichiro Torii becomes the 3rd president in 1990.
In 1994, Hakushu Single Malt Whisky is launched.
In 2003, the Yamazaki 12 Years single malt whisky became the first Japanese whisky to win the gold medal at the International Spirits Challenge, the most authoritative liquor competition in the world.
Major airlines usually would post their monthly operation results on IR websites. While United Airlines and Southwest Airlines among other stopped reporting in 2019, Alaska and Delta are still doing so.
Load factor is a measure of the use of aircraft capacity that compares Revenue Passenger-Miles as a proportion of Available Seat-Miles.
Below is a three-part project that automatically downloads, summarizes and creates chart for 4 airlines’ load factor.
Download
Given certain years, the program will go through pre-defined links to search for monthly report urls and scrap relevant data based on the page structure. BeautifulSoup is used here.
Summary
The program uses file reading and writing to put four airlines’ data together while adjusting for missing data (aligning based on month)
Charting
The program converts csv to excel and draws the chart based on data. pandas and xlsxwriter are used here.
With some adjustments, the program should be able to scrape and virtualize other web-based standard reports.
