Cell therapy
As analysts parsed news of Vinay Prasad’s ouster, worries over drug approval delays, cell and gene therapy impacts and more were top of mind.
Dispatch seeks to address two main challenges of immunotherapies in solid tumors: the lack of a target and the immunosuppressive tumor environment.
Amid a season of regulatory and scientific advances, experts reveal a culture of data hoarding among cell and gene therapy developers that is reinforcing fragmentation, stalling innovation and delaying access to treatments.
From Wall Street to real estate to a “big, ugly” pharma building, Mayo Venture Partner Audrey Greenberg reflects on a career defined by taking a leap at just the right moment.
The deal marks an end for CAR T company Cargo Therapeutics, which has been slashing its workforce and cutting programs since the January decision to halt its lead candidate for a certain type of aggressive large B cell lymphoma.
The high court sides with HHS on HIV PrEP drugs; Health Secretary RFK Jr.’s newly appointed CDC vaccine advisors discuss thimerosal in flu vaccines, skip vote on Moderna’s mRNA-based RSV vaccine; FDA removes CAR T guardrails; AbbVie snaps up Capstan for $1.2B to end first half; and psychedelics take off again with data from Compass and Beckley.
Cell and gene therapy leaders say the agency’s decision to remove the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies that had been attached to approved CAR T cancer therapies reflects “thoughtful consideration of real-world evidence” and “regulatory trust.”
The all-cash buyout, which gives AbbVie access to Capstan Therapeutics’ in vivo edited CAR T therapy for B cell–mediated autoimmune diseases, adds to a growing sense of momentum in M&A, according to BMO Capital Markets.
Changing how biopharmas package their products, how regulators review new drugs and how mutated genes are fixed could make ultrarare disease treatments possible.
While BMO Capital Markets said that zimislecel is “highly encouraging” for type 1 diabetes, questions regarding its target population and Vertex’s execution hang over the cell therapy’s commercial potential.
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