With the shutdown ongoing, Evommune plans to close its IPO on Nov. 5 via a Securities Act clause that allows registrations to come into effect after a certain window has passed.
CEO David Ricks wants Eli Lilly’s upcoming obesity pill to be accessible to patients who need it, but the company still needs to pay for the next generation of obesity medicines to come after that.
While the company’s sales outlook was otherwise rosy, Merck took sales hits on Gardisil, Proquad, Varivax and Vaxneuvance.
Bristol Myers Squibb beat analyst and consensus estimates for the third quarter with $12.2 billion in sales, but executives on the company’s investor call faced questions about a sluggish uptake for schizophrenia drug Cobenfy as well as a highly anticipated Alzheimer’s psychosis readout for the product.
To expand the population for the anti-amyloid Alzheimer’s drugs, Lilly and Biogen are testing presymptomatic patients. Will doctors be open to this paradigm-shifting change?
In this episode presented by Element Materials Technology, BioSpace’s head of insights discusses how China, historically focused on manufacturing, is increasingly becoming an innovation leader, particularly in pharmaceuticals, with guests Dr. Jihye Jang-Lee and Dr. Khanh Courtney. Ultimately, balanced strategies involve domestic capacity investments coupled with global collaboration.
FEATURED STORIES
Gene therapies have ridden investor mania to huge valuations but commercialization challenges have pushed market caps to the floor. At a roundtable last week, FDA leaders promised faster approvals and broad support to the industry.
As multiple companies vie to expand on Alnylam’s success in commercializing RNAi therapeutics, the pioneering company has set a goal of targeting small interfering RNA to any tissue by 2030.
Vaccine skepticism is at an all-time high in the U.S., and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is making some drastic moves in the name of reversing that trend. But misinformation and inconsistencies within the country’s healthcare agencies highlight problems with his approach.
Analysts reacted positively to the news that uniQure is in alignment with the FDA on an accelerated approval pathway and on target for a Q1 2026 submission for its one-time gene therapy for Huntington’s disease—but patients have been here before.
J&J has a multi-year head start, but Gilead believes it can win market share by delivering a drug with better safety and at least as good efficacy.
Jefferies has predicted more small tuck-in deals to come, as biotechs struggle to access capital despite key clinical milestones on the horizon.
LATEST PODCASTS
In our anniversary episode, we discuss a rare earnings miss for Eli Lilly, a pivotal metabolic dysfunction–associated steatohepatitis victory for Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, growing excitement about CAR Ts for autoimmune disease and the ongoing controversy over HeLa cells.
Pfizer, Sanofi and others report Q3 beats; AbbVie, Roche and Novartis strike big deals; the 2024 presidential election looms; and BioSpace takes a look back at 10 years of NextGen, our annual pick of young biotechs to watch.
In this episode of Denatured, Lori and guests from Teva Pharmaceuticals and TOWER Capital review the investment landscape this year and the policies influencing investment heading into 2025.
Job Trends
Seer, Inc. announced that PrognomiQ has completed the largest and deepest unbiased mass spectrometry plasma biomarker study to date utilizing the Seer Proteograph™ Product Suite and Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Thermo Scientific™ Orbitrap™ Astral™ mass spectrometer.
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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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The Biotech Ecosystem Venture Fund will combine the sourcing capabilities of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with Eli Lilly’s expertise in R&D—plus half a billion in capital from the Big Pharma.
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Initial rounds of VC financing totaled $7.7 billion over 137 deals for biopharma in 2024, compared to $3.8 billion over 156 deals in 2023.
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J.P. Morgan releases its quarterly look-ahead days before the entire biopharma industry descends on San Francisco for the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
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BioSpace presents 25 noteworthy biopharma startups in ’25; analysts forecast stronger M&A as the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference kicks off next week; GLP-1s continue to expand their reach as Novo, Lilly fight against compounders; and a look ahead to five key FDA decisions in Q1.
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Licensing deals have risen in prominence in a restrained market environment. Is it desperation, or an important part of the biotech ecosystem? Experts weigh in.
WEIGHT LOSS
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Analysts acknowledged the long-term manufacturing deal could dull Viking’s takeout prospects but hailed it as a smart move to ensure supply.
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The latest data showed 15.7% weight loss in patients with diabetes after 68 weeks. In December 2024, CagriSema returned another disappointing readout for Novo, eliciting weight-loss of 22.7% in patients without diabetes, below the pharma’s prior projection of 25%.
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While drug developers work to mitigate the side effects associated with GLP-1–based obesity drugs, recent studies reveal that myriad variables are causing patients to stop treatment.
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Despite comments made by a Novo Nordisk official this week, the company confirmed to BioSpace that it has no additional clinical trials of its GLP-1 drugs in addiction beyond a Phase II trial testing semaglutide and two other drugs with alcohol use as a secondary endpoint.
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Novo Nordisk’s NovoCare will now provide uninsured or underinsured patients access to Wegovy for just $499 per month—less than half of its list price.
POLICY
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Leerink Partners previews the drugs likely to be subject to the Inflation Reduction Act’s next price negotiations as the program expands to Medicare Part B and smaller biotechs.
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A February executive order on pharmaceutical price transparency does nothing to change the incentives that keep costs opaque. But drug companies and other stakeholders would reap the benefits of such disclosures.
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In a video posted to social media on Tuesday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. claimed that there is a lack of clinical data to support the repeat COVID-19 booster strategy in children.
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Rouzbeh Haghighat was serving on the board of Chinook Therapeutics at the time of the Novartis acquisition and, according to the DOJ’s allegations, used confidential information to conduct insider trading.
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According to President Trump, CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz is a “tough hombre” who can bring down drug costs “like a rock.”
BioSpace spoke with Annick Deschoolmeester, Head of Human Resources at Pharvaris, about some of the ways she’s noticed small companies differ from large ones.
We sat down with Associate Director of Talent Acquisition Jennifer Metivier and Chief People Officer Jennifer Peterson of Obsidian Therapeutics to discuss what type of candidates they prefer.
If you’re considering a career change from pharma to biotech, you’ll be happy to hear that according to industry experts, the transition is more common than you might think.
Keep reading to take a look at some of the best pharma jobs for travelers. These jobs will allow you to see different parts of the world while working in an exciting and fast-paced industry.
Thinking about starting a career in biotech? We’ve put together a guide to help you decide where to go within the biotech field and what steps you should take to get there.
The search for a biopharma job can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Here is a complete guide to the biopharma job hunt, from researching job openings to writing resumes and cover letters.
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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Stifel analysts were bullish on the data, which showed a 16.5% drop in body-mass index among patients with damage to the hypothalamus taking Rhythm Pharmaceuticals’ Imcivree.
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An independent data monitoring board found that BeiGene’s ociperlimab was unlikely to significantly boost overall survival in patients with untreated NSCLC.
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Cell therapy and oncology–focused Carisma Therapeutics started layoffs late last year. Now the company plans to wind down fully.
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While Novartis and Bayer got there first, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly are all vying to bring their radiopharmaceutical assets to a market projected to be worth over $13 billion by 2033.
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BNT327, a PD L1/VEGF antibody, belongs to a class of next-generation immunotherapies hoping to beat out Keytruda.
NEUROSCIENCE
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The licensing deal follows years of controversy for Cassava, as well as the high-profile late-stage failure of its Alzheimer’s disease drug simufilam.
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ITF, IntraBio and Orchard are among the companies that have won FDA nods in the past year for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Niemann-Pick disease type C, metachromatic leukodystrophy and more.
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Emalex is gearing up for a New Drug Application for ecopipam in Tourette syndrome later this year.
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BridGene strikes another partnership with Takeda as the latter company continues its dealmaking streak, following high-ticket agreements with Keros Therapeutics, AC Immune and Degron Therapeutics in the past nine months.
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The treatment, called DB-OTO, is one of several early-stage gene therapies being developed to treat relatively straight-forward causes of genetic deafness.
CELL AND GENE THERAPY
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Five years ago, Gilead signed a massive deal with Galapagos. After a restructuring, the pharma is still hunting for the potential it saw at the original signing.
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As the year gets underway, analysts and biotech executives highlight cell therapy’s pivot from oncology to autoimmune diseases, a continued appetite for next-generation obesity drugs and an increased focus on neuromuscular, kidney and cardiovascular diseases.
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Traditionally carrying a dire prognosis, the treatment paradigm for multiple myeloma is changing, with CAR T therapies, bispecifics and more contributing to multifaceted regimens unique to each patient’s needs.
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In this episode of Denatured, BioSpace’s Head of Insights Lori Ellis talks to Dr. Peter Marks, Director, CBER about his thoughts on the future of cell and gene therapies.
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Along with its gene editing therapy Casgevy, Vertex is offering fertility preservation support for its patients—a program that the HHS claims violates anti-kickback statutes.