Regeneron’s Yancopoulos: bitter over Praluent and skeptical over Novartis

George Yancopoulos, Regeneron Pharma’s top scientist, is still a bit bitter about the commercial flop of its cholesterol-lowering PCSK9 inhibitor Praluent. He also threw a tiny bit of shade on Novartis’ belief that it can do better with inclisiran, a longer-acting PCSK9 inhibitor acquired through the $10 billion buyout of The Medicines Company. 

“We invested collectively billions of dollars on a great drug that’s been shown to save lives, the number one killer in America, and you can’t make much money on it,” said Yancopoulos, speaking at a JPM sideline event on Tuesday afternoon.

Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan was also there, and as you’d expect, his view of the situation was more upbeat.

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