As the Trump administration slashes funding for HIV-related research and infrastructure, Gilead, Immunocore and more are targeting the next goalpost: a cure.
Looking for a biopharma job in San Francisco? Check out the BioSpace list of 10 companies hiring life sciences professionals like you.
Currently trailing Eli Lilly and Structure Therapeutics in the oral weight loss space, Novo Nordisk strikes a deal with Septerna to put new discovery-stage programs into play.
The ADARx Pharmaceuticals partnership, which could be worth “several billion dollars” in the end, adds to AbbVie’s existing work in the space after the $1.4 billion acquisition of Aliada Therapeutics in October 2024.
GSK secures rights to Boston Pharmaceuticals’ efimosfermin alfa, which the pharma plans to develop for fatty liver diseases such as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis and alcohol-related liver disease.
Belrestotug showed underwhelming efficacy outcomes in mid-stage studies of non-small cell lung cancer and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
Arcturus is extending its cash runway into 2028 by discontinuing its early-stage vaccine candidates.
FEATURED STORIES
Presentations at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research meeting could have a broad impact on the treatment landscape for head and neck and lung cancer, and implications for specific drug modalities like TIGIT and VEGF.
Executives don’t just get paid big bucks to operate a company. Sometimes they get paid millions to walk away.
Biotech was starting to show signs of recovery after years of investor pullback—until new tariffs and economic uncertainty sent fresh shockwaves through an already fragile market.
FROM BIOSPACE INSIGHTS
The first annual BioTechX USA, held in Santa Clara in September, bridged the communication gap by bringing together life sciences leaders in all areas of the industry.
LATEST PODCASTS
The FDA is mired in uncertainty with some staffers losing their jobs over the weekend and more potentially to come, vaccines and psychedelic therapies could be facing very different futures under newly confirmed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Moderna continues its downward revenue slide and Merck, Regeneron, BMS and more face strong patent headwinds.
In the first podcast in a special series focused on BioSpace’s NextGen Class of 2025, Senior Editor Annalee Armstrong speaks with Dannielle Appelhans, CEO of COUR.
In this episode, presented by the Genscript Biotech Global Forum 2025, BioSpace’s Head of Insights Lori Ellis and Tom Whitehead continue to discuss the patient and caregiver experience, where Tom gives his insights to the future of CGTs.
Job Trends
In another delay for the psychedelic treatment space, Compass Pathways announced adjusted timelines for two Phase III trials of its psilocybin to address treatment-resistant depression.
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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
  1. Novartis was among the most prolific pharma dealmakers in 2024, a trend that it expects to continue with more bolt-on deals this year to set up for sustainable long-term growth.
  2. Sanofi’s jump in earnings comes with an increased emphasis on R&D and vaccines, plus an eye cast toward M&A to shore up its pipeline.
  3. The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference started off with a flurry of deals that reinvigorated excitement across the biopharma industry. Johnson & Johnson moved to acquire Intra-Cellular Therapies for $14.6 billion, breaking a dealmaking barrier that kept Big Pharma’s 2024 biotech buyouts to under $5 billion.
  4. Donald Trump continues to make waves in biopharma; Sage rejects Biogen’s unsolicited takeover offer; the obesity space sees more action with new company launches, IPOs and fresh data; and experts get ready for an important era in the Duchenne muscular dystrophy space.
  5. Following a lawsuit filed last week, Sage has officially rejected Biogen’s unsolicited buyout offer, which valued the embattled biotech at just $469 million.
WEIGHT LOSS
  1. The Maryland-based biopharma joins Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk in trialing a GLP-1 agonist for alcohol- and liver-related conditions.
  2. Roche and Zealand plan to study petrelintide as a monotherapy and in combination with CT-388, a dual agonist of the GLP-1 and GIP receptors that Roche picked up in its recent acquisition of Carmot Therapeutics.
  3. BioSpace remembers COVID-19 five years after the pandemic was declared, Novo Nordisk’s CagriSema again misses expectations as the company joins a lawsuit filed by drug compounders against the FDA, Viking secures ample supply of its investigational obesity medication, J&J strikes out in depression, and Makary and Bhattacharya near confirmation.
  4. Analysts acknowledged the long-term manufacturing deal could dull Viking’s takeout prospects but hailed it as a smart move to ensure supply.
  5. 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%.
POLICY
  1. The Health and Human Services Secretary said that he will find and eliminate the cause of autism by September, an idea that suggests how little he knows about the condition.
  2. GeoVax was using its HHS contract to develop its next-generation multi-antigen COVID-19 vaccine, which is in Phase IIb development.
  3. Despite these cuts, the FDA should be able to stay above a “trigger” level that would prevent it from collecting fees from the pharma industry and deprive it of approximately half of its annual funding, according to The Washington Post.
  4. In the wake of unprecedented workforce cuts at the FDA, former Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and an unnamed former CBER director spoke to analysts about potential implications for drug review timelines and agency morale.
  5. Playing both sides of trade war, pharma companies are asking for certain compensations for scientific innovation and a smoother regulatory framework.
CAREER HUB
Looking for a biotech job in San Diego? Check out these seven top companies hiring life sciences professionals like you.
By building and nurturing a strong personal brand, you can benefit in multiple ways, including enhancing your credibility, attracting opportunities and inspiring investor confidence.
To avoid being laid off, a third of biopharma professionals would take a pay cut and nearly a quarter would take a demotion, according to BioSpace LinkedIn polls. We spoke to several professionals about their layoff experiences and what they would—and wouldn’t—have done to keep their jobs.
Plus, learn how to handle vacation time in a new job and navigate the stress of a recent promotion to leadership.
A BioSpace LinkedIn poll showed that just 19% of respondents believe biopharma professionals need Ph.D.s for scientist roles.
Employers have adjusted to higher salaries. That also means they’ve become adamant they get specific skill sets, according to Greg Clouse, BioSpace recruitment manager.
Looking for a job in Texas? Check out these nine companies hiring life sciences professionals like you.
HOTBEDS
Where are the Best Places to Work in life sciences? BioSpace’s annual Best Places to Work list demonstrates a company’s desirability in the recruitment marketplace - find out who made the list this year.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
After warnings that the dragged-out process was putting the cell therapy company at risk of bankruptcy, bluebird bio now has a new deal to offer shareholders.
REPORTS
How does age affect employees’ experiences in the workplace? This report examines the intersection of age along with gender and other demographics.
In the final instalment of our Diversity in Life Sciences series, BioSpace provides life sciences organizations with practical solutions and benchmarking data to strengthen their DEI initiatives.
BioSpace surveyed industry employers and professionals to understand what to expect from the recruitment market in 2022. What do professionals want? How difficult will it be to recruit new talent?
CANCER
  1. The German conglomerate announced a licensing agreement with Puhe BioPharma for a PRMT5 inhibitor used in a variety of cancers. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
  2. AbbVie claims that Genmab turned a blind eye to trade secret theft allegedly used to support the development of ProfoundBio’s investigational antibody-drug conjugates. Genmab acquired ProfoundBio in May 2024.
  3. Adaptimmune is rolling out its T cell therapy Tecelra for synovial sarcoma, recording $1.2 million in sales since its approval in August 2024. Nevertheless, it is pausing development of two oncology assets to save money.
  4. With Keytruda, the best-selling drug in the world, facing the end of exclusivity in 2028, BioSpace looks at five drugs that have taken the leap off the patent cliff.
  5. The French pharma is getting Black Diamond’s de-prioritized molecule for non-small cell lung cancers with specific mutations whose development had been paused to save money.
NEUROSCIENCE
  1. Mission Therapeutics is down to its clinical assets MTX652 and MTX325, which work by disabling a key enzyme that interferes with the cell’s normal process of removing faulty or dysfunctional mitochondria.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Emalex is gearing up for a New Drug Application for ecopipam in Tourette syndrome later this year.
  5. 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.
CELL AND GENE THERAPY
  1. At the 2025 National Biotechnology Conference, gene therapies, bispecific antibodies and other novel modalities—relative newcomers to medicine—will be much discussed. In this curtain raiser, BioSpace speaks with conference chair Prathap Nagaraja Shastri of J&J about these highly anticipated topics.
  2. The treatment, called DB-OTO, is one of several early-stage gene therapies being developed to treat relatively straight-forward causes of genetic deafness.
  3. The proposed acquisition by global investment firms Carlyle and SK Capital Partners could net shareholders $3 per share plus potential CVR dollars and provide bluebird bio with primary capital to expand the commercial reach of its gene therapies.
  4. The move comes weeks after Pfizer terminated its partnership with Sangamo Therapeutics for another hemophilia gene therapy.
  5. The Philadelphia market has gained recognition not only for its cell and gene therapy sector but also its real estate scene and talent pool. Vittoria Biotherapeutics, Interius BioTherapeutics and Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia executives share why the area is a life sciences hot spot.