SOLAR POWER
Tesla to launch solar roofs Amid planned merger with SolarCity, Tesla founder Musk thinks attractive panels will break open the market Tesla makes cars. It makes batteries. Now Tesla wants to sell solar roofs that homeowners can use to charge those cars and batteries. Tesla Chairman Elon Musk launched the solar shingles recently before a raucous gathering at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. The shingles are a collaboration between Tesla and SolarCity, a solar panel firm that Musk chairs. He has been trying to sell skeptical shareholders on a merger between Tesla and SolarCity. Musk’s main selling point for the new shingles is style. The shingles are solar cells embedded in tempered glass that incorporates a color louver film. From the ground, the shingles are opaque and look like ordinary roofing shingles. But viewed from above, the shingles are transparent, reveal-
ing the photovoltaic electronics inside. “The goal is to have solar roofs that look better than a normal roof,” Musk said. Tesla will wade into a tough market. Dow Chemical discontinued production of its solar shingles earlier this year. Based on thinfilm copper indium gallium selenide, they were less conspicuous, though less efficient, than normal polysilicon photovoltaic panels. Other than showing off the styles and dropping kettle balls on them to demonstrate how tough they are, Musk disclosed little about the shingles. On cost, Tesla is only saying the system is cheaper than a conventional roof when the elimination of future energy bills is considered. Tesla also didn’t disclose the solar technology underpinning the new photovoltaics. In 2014, SolarCity bought Silevo,
For its announcement, Tesla outfitted houses on a set at Universal Studios with new solar roofs. which was developing cells incorporating a tunneling oxide layer, thin film passivation, and an n-type crystalline substrate. And Tesla recently agreed to collaborate on solar cells with Panasonic, which offers cells with a crystalline silicone substrate and amorphous silicon layers. Critics point out that the shingles announcement came suspiciously close to the Nov. 17 shareholder vote for the merger between Tesla and SolarCity. On Seekingalpha. com, Enertuition, an anonymous blogger who calls himself a semiconductor veteran and consultant, predicted the new shingles will be a “complete dud” for technical reasons such as the effects the louver films may have on performance.—ALEX TULLO
PHARMACEUTICALS
Pfizer drops a cholesterol drug
CREDIT: TESLA
Bococizumab was the drugmaker’s latest attempt at a Lipitor follow-up Pfizer, which has struggled to find a follow-up to its blockbuster anticholesterol drug Lipitor, has stopped work on bococizumab, a cholesterol-lowering agent in Phase III clinical trials. The firm cites efficacy and safety concerns as well as a “market landscape” unfavorable to new drugs in the category. The company says its earnings will be clipped by 4 cents per share, or about $300 million, following the decision to discontinue trials of the drug, an antibody-based PCSK9 inhibitor. Bococizumab’s demise marks Pfizer’s second misfire in producing a cholesterol drug to succeed Lipitor, which lost patent exclusivity in 2012. Pfizer pulled the drug candidate it hoped would follow on immediately, torcetrapib, in 2006 after an increase in deaths in patients taking it along with Lipitor in clinical trials. Pfizer began work on bococizumab at about the same time. Drugs in the PCSK9 class work by blocking the cholesterol regulator proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9. They can
reduce levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), sometimes called “bad” cholesterol, by as much as 60%. Pfizer’s bococizumab tests, however, showed that the drug’s cholesterol-lowering capacity declines over time. The tests also uncovered higher levels of immunogenicity and injection-site reactions
Pfizer’s third quarter Higher sales, lower income, and a drug discontinued add up to a 5-cent drop in projected 2016 per-share earnings. 3Q revenues
3Q net income Earnings impact of bococizumab discontinuation Source: Pfizer
$13 billion +8% vs third quarter 2015
$1.3 billion -38% vs third quarter 2015
$300 million
than occur with other drugs in the class. The company’s decision was also influenced by the difficulty that PCSK9 drugs already on the market—Amgen’s Repatha and Sanofi and Regeneron’s Praluent—have met as insurers direct patients to lower-priced statins available as generics, such as Lipitor. Both brand-name PCSK9 inhibitors carry a list price of about $14,000 a year. John LaMattina, a senior partner at PureTech Ventures and former head of R&D at Pfizer, says Pfizer’s decision comes as many of the firm’s peers are stepping back from cholesterol drug research. “Because current therapies for cardiovascular disease are pretty good,” he says, “distinguishing a new agent so that you can justify payers reimbursing it, and doctors prescribing it, requires you to do a lot of work preparing a new drug application.” Pfizer, he notes, reported 94 ongoing research programs in its third-quarter earnings report last week, of which 39 are in oncology, 10 in rare disease, and seven in cardiovascular disease.—RICK MULLIN NOVEMBER 7, 2016 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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