Patients who are prescribed Wegovy or Ozempic can now use GoodRx to access the medications at just $499 a month if they skip insurance. This is not the first time Novo has partnered with a pharmacy to offer the blockbuster drugs.
Inclacumab, which Pfizer obtained in its 2022 acquisition of Global Blood Therapeutics, failed to significantly lower pain episodes in patients with sickle cell disease over the 48-week treatment period.
Kriya is advancing a host of gene therapies for a wide variety of chronic diseases, including geographic atrophy, trigeminal neuralgia and type 1 diabetes.
In Phase III studies, Tonmya showed significantly superior analgesic effects in patients with fibromyalgia versus placebo. The sublingual pill also led to better clinical outcomes.
The label expansion could help Novo Nordisk “help shift the momentum” for Wegovy, after a difficult start to 2025, according to analysts at BMO Capital Markets.
Papzimeos is the first immunotherapy approved for recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, a rare lung disorder involving the development of benign tumors in the airways.
FEATURED STORIES
There are multiple ways biopharmas create inclusive workplaces for LGBTQ+ employees, and they go beyond employee resource groups and benefits.
In this deep dive BioSpace analyzes the neuropsychedelic therapeutics pipeline, which grabbed headlines in February when the FDA accepted the New Drug Application for Lykos Therapeutics’ MDMA capsules for PTSD.
While San Diego remains a top biotech hub behind Boston and San Francisco, the city—which hosts this week’s BIO International Convention—has seen employment drop amid economic headwinds.
Experts say approval of Lykos Therapeutics’ MDMA capsules for post-traumatic stress disorder would open the door to further research into psychedelic-assisted therapies.
AstraZeneca last week set another ambitious goal, this time with plans to nearly double its total revenue by the end of the decade. However, it’s easier said than done, according to analysts.
While NK cell therapies can potentially avoid the serious side effects sometimes seen with CAR T cell therapies, experts say durability may stall their path to the market.
LATEST PODCASTS
In this episode of Denatured, Jennifer Smith-Parker speaks to Kenneth Galbraith, CEO of Zymeworks and Josh Smiley, president and COO of Zai Lab, about how renewed confidence is driving biotech entering 2026.
Eli Lilly’s retatrutide exceeds expectations in Phase III, capping off a sparkling 2025 for the obesity titan; an internal FDA safety review finds no confirmed pediatric deaths caused by COVID-19 vaccines, and Commissioner Marty Makary says no black box warning will be attached to the shots; and BioSpace looks at six biotechs that could be pharma’s next buy.
In this episode of Denatured presented by AnaptysBio, Jennifer Smith-Parker speaks to Dr. Joe Murray, Mayo Clinic; Marilyn Geller, the Celiac Disease Foundation; and Dr. Paul Lizzul, AnaptysBio, about the challenges and opportunities facing celiac disease treatment.
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SPECIAL EDITIONS
In this deep dive, BioSpace investigates China’s rise as a biotech powerhouse.
In this deep dive, BioSpace explores the next big thing in obesity.
BioSpace did a deep dive into biopharma female executives who navigated difficult markets to lead their companies to high-value exits.
DEALS
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BioNTech will pay Shanghai-based Duality Biologics $170 million upfront for rights to two of its topoisomerase-1 inhibitor-based antibody drug conjugates.
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There have already been several big biotech licensing deals in Q1. See inside for some of this quarter’s biggest licensing deals — from the surprising and pivotal to the lucrative and consequential.
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Jounce Therapeutics has received an unsolicited and non-binding acquisition proposal from Concentra Biosciences, looking to buy 100% of Jounce’s equity at a per-share price of $1.80 in cash.
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The SVB failure appears to have been caused by an underwritten public offering to raise $2.25 billion to cover security losses announced during SVB’s Q1 2023 mid-quarter update.
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Sanofi will acquire diabetes leader Provention Bio for $25 per share for a total of $2.9 billion, the companies announced Monday.
WEIGHT LOSS
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The acquisition will give Roche access to Carmot’s clinical portfolio of three GLP-1 receptor agonists, placing it squarely in the middle of the competition to treat overweight and obesity.
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AbbVie’s $10.1 billion ImmunoGen buy and Altimmune’s Phase II win demonstrate that the antibody-drug conjugate market is red hot in cancer and GLP-1 drugs for weight loss are an absolute craze.
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While Pfizer’s oral GLP-1 candidate met its primary endpoint in a Phase IIb obesity trial, twice-daily dosing of danuglipron resulted in high rates of adverse events including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
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Patients treated with Altimmune’s investigational GLP-1/glucagon dual receptor agonist saw up to 15.6% weight loss, and nearly a third of those taking the highest dose lost at least 20% of their body weight.
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This week on The Weekly we talk struggles with GLP-1 drug shortages and what that might mean for Novo and Lilly competitors; Regeneron and Sanofi positive results for Dupixent in COPD. Plus, Merck buys Caraway, Beigene’s deal with Ensem, ups and downs for Flagship.
POLICY
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Eli Lilly on Thursday said it is again suing spas and clinics over compounded and counterfeit forms of tirzepatide, the active ingredient in blockbusters Mounjaro and Zepbound, which the pharma says can cause harmful side effects.
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The Federal Trade Commission is supporting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s proposed new rules requiring parties to a patent dispute to disclose all settlement agreements, including pharmaceutical drug settlements.
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National Institutes of Health researchers in a Phase Ib/II study found a five-drug combination elicits strong remission rates in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients without using chemotherapeutic agents.
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The next six months for the FDA are primed to be as groundbreaking as the first six, with Eli Lilly’s donanemab and Lykos Therapeutics’ MDMA-assisted PTSD therapy on the docket, among others.
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Following two deaths due to presumed sepsis, the FDA has placed a partial clinical hold on three trials for Zentalis’ azenosertib including a Phase I in solid tumors, Phase II in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and Phase II in uterine serous carcinoma.
Your employment or work history section of your resume is likely the single most important category in the entire document and, when done well, can make a powerful case to your potential employer about how and why you’re well qualified for their open position.
Going into a job interview, especially when you really want the job or don’t have much experience on the job market, can be a nerve-wracking few hours for many candidates.
If you’re considering a future in life science, there’s a good chance a lucrative salary isn’t the biggest draw. For many who choose science careers, the opportunity to satisfy an innate curiosity is more important than a stellar income.
Unlike the professional skills and experiences you gain through formal training or education, soft skills are those elusive interpersonal skills, personality traits, character attributes, or communication styles that will determine how you interact with your colleagues and the success or failure of the relationships you form in the workplace.
If you’re a seasoned employee and had the ability reach across the expanse of time and provide a fresh-out-of-college with some career advice, what would it be?
There are many reasons employees elect to remain at a given job: good salary and benefits, a strong sense of mission or duty, convenience, and so on. There are also many reasons that employees decide to leave a job – and one very common reason is management.
HOTBEDS
REPORTS
In this Employment Outlook report, BioSpace explores current workforce sentiment, job activity trends and the prospective job and hiring outlook for 2025, particularly as it compares to the previous year.
BioSpace’s third report on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in life sciences examines dramatic shifts in attitude around diversity initiatives.
CANCER
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Genmab announced Wednesday it is buying ProfoundBio and its pipeline of next-generation antibody-drug conjugates being developed for gynecologic cancers and other solid tumors.
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With second-generation antibody-drug conjugates, Eli Lilly, Daiichi Sankyo and others look to reduce toxicity and improve the magnitude and duration of response.
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Avenzo’s founders, who led Turning Point through its $4.1 billion sale to BMS, want to in-license three clinical-stage oncology candidates by early 2026.
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Bristol Myers Squibb’s $4.8 billion acquisition of Mirati pays off with strong data from the KRYSTAL-12 study of Krazati, showing that the KRAS inhibitor significantly improves progression-free survival.
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Keytruda can now be used in the European Union for patients with resectable non-small cell lung cancer at high risk of recurrence in combination with platinum chemotherapy, then continued as a monotherapy afterwards.
NEUROSCIENCE
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The amyloid plaque targeting therapy met primary endpoint and all secondary endpoints, which Lilly will use in its submission to the FDA this quarter.
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Clinical results for experimental treatments in Alzheimer’s, ALS and more are expected over the coming months. BioSpace highlights a few of the more highly anticipated datasets.
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With data from the Phase III trial of donanemab expected in Q2, Eli Lilly presented the first clinical results from its next anti-amyloid antibody, remternetug, at AD/PD 2023.
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BIIB080 successfully reduced tau pathology in patients with early-stage disease across all six brain regions analyzed.
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Data released Wednesday from the Phase III A4 study showed solanezumab fell short of its primary endpoint, failing to slow cognitive decline in patients with preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.
CELL AND GENE THERAPY
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A report from analysts at Jefferies suggested that new screenings for metachromatic leukodystrophy and Duchenne muscular dystrophy could bump sales of the gene therapy Libmeldy by more than $100 million.
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Addition joins a growing list of launches this year, following in the footsteps of startups like Crystalys Therapeutics and Ollin Biosciences.
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Eli Lilly’s retatrutide exceeds expectations in Phase III, capping off a sparkling 2025 for the obesity titan; an internal FDA safety review finds no confirmed pediatric deaths caused by COVID-19 vaccines, and Commissioner Marty Makary says no black box warning will be attached to the shots; and BioSpace looks at six biotechs that could be pharma’s next buy.
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These deals radically reshaped the biopharma world, either by one vaccine rival absorbing another, a Big Pharma doubling down after another failed acquisition or, in the case of Pfizer and Novo, two heavyweights duking it out over a hot obesity biotech.
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Backed by Italy-based Fondazione Telethon ETS, Waskyra, for Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, is the first gene therapy from a non-profit sponsor to win FDA approval.