Zydus secures major drug deals: CVS partnership and FDA priority review 

Zydus Lifesciences announced two significant developments today. The company has reached an agreement with CVS Caremark to include its diabetes medications Zituvio, Zituvimet, and Zituvimet XR in its template formulary, effective January 1, 2025.

These drugs, containing sitagliptin and metformin hydrochloride, are used to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The shares of Zydus Lifesciences Limited were trading at ₹1,000.60 up by ₹39.15 or 4.07 per cent on the NSE today at 12.50 pm.

Additionally, the U.S. FDA has accepted and granted priority review to Sentynl Therapeutics, Zydus’s U.S.-based subsidiary, for its New Drug Application (NDA) for CUTX-101, a potential treatment for Menkes disease. The FDA has set a target action date of June 30, 2025, under a six-month priority review period.

The CUTX-101 clinical trials showed promising results, with early-treated patients demonstrating a nearly 80% per cent reduction in death risk compared to untreated historical controls. The median overall survival increased significantly from 16.1 months in untreated patients to 177.1 months in early-treated patients.

Menkes disease is a rare X-linked recessive pediatric condition affecting between 1 in 34,810 to 1 in 8,664 live male births. Currently, there is no FDA-approved treatment for the disease, which typically results in death between ages 2 and 3.

Zydus Lifesciences employs over 27,000 people globally, including 1,400 scientists in R&D.