Following a similar decision in case the trade group Outsourcing Facilities Association brought against FDA over its decision to declare the end of the shortage of Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, Judge Mark Pittman agreed that Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide is in sufficient supply, meaning compounding pharmacies can no longer sell the lucrative weight loss drugs.
Gilead will construct three new facilities in the U.S., while upgrading three others. The company claims the investment will produce "$43 billion in value.”
The independent experts will meet on May 22 to discuss updates to the COVID-19 vaccine for the upcoming season.
The UCSF professor and frequent YouTube poster has criticized COVID-19 vaccine mandates as well as the accelerated approval pathway and other FDA practices. Predictions of what his tenure might achieve are scattershot.
The Massachusetts biotech will focus its efforts and resources into cemsidomide, an oral drug candidate being trialed for multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Although the job market did not pick up in April, layoffs were down year over year and month over month, according to BioSpace tallies. Meanwhile, Amgen, Novartis, Regeneron and Roche announced U.S. manufacturing investments that are sparking job creation.
FEATURED STORIES
Like they say about the weather in Iceland, if you don’t like an action taken by the new administration, wait five minutes; it’ll probably change. The markets, it seems, don’t react kindly to that kind of policymaking.
Analysts have had to throw out their assumptions for the biopharma industry’s recovery heading into the first quarter earnings period given the ongoing tariff drama.
Johnson & Johnson’s Joaquin Duato is no longer the highest paid CEO in pharma. Meanwhile, just two women make the top 10.
FROM BIOSPACE INSIGHTS
Economic turbulence has persisted into 2023 and the life science industry is certainly not immune. How are organizations juggling business needs, budgets, recruitment and retention?
LATEST PODCASTS
In this bonus episode, BioSpace’s vice president of marketing Chantal Dresner and careers editor Angela Gabriel take a look at Q4 job market performance and what we expect to see ahead.
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.
J&J, GSK, Eli Lilly and others struck high-value transactions in the early days of biopharma’s annual kickoff conference. Meanwhile, Biogen proposes to acquire struggling neuro partner Sage, and obesity dominates discussions as Pfizer goes “all in.”
Job Trends
ImmunityBio will lay off 16 employees in California and said it expects to need more funding to commercialize Anktiva, approved in April for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.
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SPECIAL EDITIONS
A new generation of checkpoint inhibitors is emerging, with some showing more promise than others. From recent TIGIT failures to high-potential targets like VEGF, BioSpace explores what’s on the horizon in immuno-oncology.
Peter Marks, the venerable head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, has been forced out. In this special edition of BioPharm Executive, BioSpace takes a deep dive into the instability of the HHS.
Year-over-year BioSpace data show biopharma professionals faced increased competition for fewer employment opportunities during the first quarter of 2025.
DEALS
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Biopharma executives shared their thoughts on the potential impacts of the new administration; Annalee Armstrong recaps JPM and her talks with Biogen, Gilead, Novavax and more; Wegovy’s higher dose induces more weight loss; AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s Dato-DXd scores its first FDA approval. -
Biopharma executives make their predictions for the year ahead, from a bold forecast for the return of the megadeal to a plea for the slow, healthy recovery of the industry at large. -
While investors and analysts push for a deal, Biogen CEO Chris Viehbacher and Head of Development Priya Singhal refuse to make one out of desperation. -
J.P. Morgan kicked off with a flurry of deals, with Eli Lilly, GSK and Gilead all announcing deals potentially worth more than $1 billion while J&J committed $14.6 billion to buy Intra-Cellular. These moves have reinvigorated sentiment across the biopharma industry. -
In exchange for its investigational gene therapies, Regenxbio will receive $110 million upfront and up to $700 million in milestones. After hitting an all-time low of $6.95 at close of business yesterday, the stock surged on the news by nearly 20% before markets opened Tuesday.
WEIGHT LOSS
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While Kallyope’s drugs are mechanistically unique, the biotech is competing in a crowded space, with other therapies that appear to elicit superior weight-loss. -
As high prices and supply issues drive consumers to alternative markets for GLP-1s, physicians aren’t too interested in using these therapies to treat conditions like heart disease risk that have existing cheap standards of care. -
The Outsourcing Facilities Association, a trade group representing compounders, filed a similar lawsuit in October last year after the FDA formally ended the tirzepaptide shortage. -
Many of these unlawful and unauthorized shipments were explicitly tagged for compounding, according to a new analysis. Separately, a group of state attorneys general has raised concerns about the unsafe GLP-1 drugs finding their way to American consumers. -
Obesity drug developers Aardvark, Helicore and Metsera have all netted raises in the past two weeks.
POLICY
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Jazz is being accused of anti-competitive practices regarding its narcolepsy drug, as generic competitors emerge on the market. -
Billions in market cap are being shed as the markets reel over President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war. Eli Lilly’s value has dropped more than $95 billion in just one month. -
Last week, The Trump administration reversed a Biden-era proposal for Medicare coverage of anti-obesity treatments. But on Monday, HHS suggested it is open to future policy considerations toward this end. -
Senators Bill Cassidy and Bernie Sanders asked HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to make good on a pledge to appear before the committee regularly. It is not clear if or when the hearing, which was scheduled for Thursday, will take place. -
Under Friday’s final ruling anti-obesity medications for weight-loss will remain ineligible for Medicare coverage.
After more than 20 years at Eli Lilly, Leslie Sam moved into independent consulting. To prepare for the transition, she focused on becoming technically deep and earning industry recognition.
Employed and unemployed biotech and pharma professionals are thinking about job hunting in other fields amidst a challenging labor market.
When you don’t get the promotion you wanted, it’s important to assess your company and yourself so you can improve your odds in the future.
Looking for an automation engineer job? Check out these seven companies hiring life sciences professionals like you.
Career support is the No. 2 driver of employee engagement while learning and development is No. 3, according to a new Right Management report. A recent BioSpace survey supports those findings.
BioSpace has updated our Job Search Toolkit, including recent resources to help you succeed with your next job search.
HOTBEDS
REPORTS
Following a tumultuous start to 2023, layoffs have cooled off though recruiting activities have been significantly impacted by the economic environment.
The 2021 Salary Report is significant in more ways than one. This year, BioSpace analyzed salary data through two key lenses: the impact of the pandemic, and for the first time, race and ethnicity.
BioSpace’s 2022 Salary Report explores the average salaries and salary trends of life sciences professionals. Though movement in the labor market slowed during the pandemic, recovery has been swift and employers are once again having to cope with a highly competitive talent market.
CANCER
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The FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee recently voted to narrow the label for checkpoint inhibitors Keytruda and Opdivo in stomach and esophageal cancers based on PD-L1 expression levels—but the high unmet need in these patient populations should also be considered. -
On the agenda for the FDA this month are two RNA-based treatments for rare diseases. -
Imfinzi is one of AstraZeneca’s key growth drivers for 2025, with potential approvals in stomach and bladder cancers. The PD-L1 blocker brought in over $4.7 billion in sales last year. -
The new formulation of Keytruda, currently under FDA review, is sparking conflict with Halozyme, which makes enzymes that convert intravenous drugs into injectable versions. -
At the heart of the deal is the drug candidate dordaviprone, which is months away from a regulatory verdict for its use in H3 K27M-mutated diffuse glioma.
NEUROSCIENCE
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Bristol Myers Squibb clocked $10 million in sales for new schizophrenia drug Cobenfy in the fourth quarter of 2024, with the launch proceeding ahead of expectations. -
Before garnering approval on Tuesday, Onapgo had been rejected twice by the FDA. -
Faced with the encroaching threats of patent expirations and generics, biopharma companies in 2024 invested 33% more in licensing deals, on average, than in 2023 with an eye toward enriching their pipelines with novel and potentially more effective therapies. -
The Phase IIa results continue a surge of momentum in a treatment space that last week saw the approval of Vertex’s Journavx as the first novel mechanism for acute pain in decades. -
In a Phase IIb trial, GH001 elicited significant drops in treatment-resistant depression. The news comes less than two weeks after J&J secured FDA monotherapy approval for its esketamine nasal spray Spravato in the same indication.
CELL AND GENE THERAPY
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Vertex expects to make the newly approved non-opioid pain medicine Journavx available by the end of February. -
Adding a new indication for the CAR T cell therapy could help BMS offset the loss-of-exclusivity headwinds it faces in the coming years.
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Several companies—including JCR Pharmaceuticals, Denali Therapeutics and Regenxbio—have products in the pipeline that could improve treatment options for this rare disease. -
CAR T–focused biotech Cargo Therapeutics surprised and disappointed analysts when it announced that it would discontinue a mid-stage trial of its lead program, firi-cel. -
In this episode, presented by the Genscript Biotech Global Forum 2025, BioSpace’s Head of Insights Lori Ellis talks to Tom Whitehead, co-founder of the Emily Whitehead Foundation, about how standard care, cell and gene therapies and their impact on patients.
