BridgeBio Pharma (NASDAQ:BBIO) has accused its rivals, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Alnylam (NASDAQ:ALNY), of using questionable tactics to promote their products in the multibillion-dollar drug market for a rare heart disorder called transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis, Bloomberg News reported.
All three companies offer drugs targeting the condition, also known as transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), with BridgeBio (NASDAQ:BBIO) and Alnylam (NASDAQ:ALNY) receiving FDA approval for their products Attruby and Amvuttra in November and March, respectively.
Pfizer’s (NYSE:PFE) ATTR-CM therapy Vyndamax, approved by the FDA in 2019, helped the company generate $5.4B in global revenue from its Vyndaqel franchise in 2024, indicating ~65% YoY growth.
According to BridgeBio (NASDAQ:BBIO), during a presentation at a medical meeting this month, the New York-based pharma giant played a video identifying its Vyndamax product as “the first and only approved treatment” for ATTR-CM.
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) noted that it alerted event organizers and BridgeBio (BBIO) after correcting the video, which it said was played in error.
CEO Neil Kumar alleged that Pfizer (PFE) compared its product against BridgeBio (BBIO) in a misleading manner at another meeting. Instead of comparing the averages, PFE’s presentation was “like taking you on your best day of running and me on my worst day,” he added. However, referring to a study conducted by researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in 2020, the COVID vaccine maker maintained that the presentation was accurate.
Meanwhile, a study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, funded by Alnylam (NASDAQ:ALNY), has inaccurately cited an earlier-than-expected onset of survival benefit for its product compared to placebo.
The paper’s supplemental materials suggested that the results were adjusted. An unadjusted mortality chart, which Kumar said was the industry standard but was placed on page 43 of an appendix, indicated a higher efficacy for BridgeBio’s (BBIO) product.
“We’re just asking for an even playing field,” he added. Meanwhile, Alnylam’s (ALNY) R&D chief Pushkal Garg said that Kumar’s frustration over the publication was “much ado about nothing.”
While the company included both sets of figures, the adjustments were necessary, to show among other things, a clear depiction of the benefits, he added. “We should take great pride that we’ve brought forward a number of medicines that are going to change the way this is treated forever,” Garg said.