Sept. 23 Quick Takes: U.K.’s growth plan to support biotech

Along with ushering in the U.K.’s biggest tax cuts in decades, the growth plan unveiled Friday by Kwasi Kwarteng, the newly minted chancellor of the Exchequer, includes measures that seek to spur investment in the life sciences. To catalyze investment from pension funds into VC funds, the plan introduces a £500 million ($584 million) Long-Term Investment for Technology & Science (LIFTS) competition to support the scaling of innovative businesses, including biotech. Kwarteng also announced changes to the pension “charge cap,” which has been a barrier for pensions investing in VCs. The new measures are expected to accelerate and enable defined contribution pensions to invest in venture capital to boost the U.K.’s long-term growth. Currently, over 80% of defined contribution pension funds’ investments in Britain are in mostly listed securities, according to the Exchequer.

A day after FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee declined to back Pozenveo poziotinib and Pepaxto melphalan flufenamide, the panel reconvened to discuss Copiktra duvelisib from Secura Bio Inc. and, in an 8-4 vote, declined to back it as well. Copiktra, a PI3Kδ inhibitor, was approved on Sept. 24, 2018, to treat relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) after at least two prior therapies. Like other PI3K inhibitors approved based on single-arm trials, FDA has raised concerns about Copiktra’s toxicity. An accelerated approval to treat relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma was withdrawn by the company last December. ...