Dan Samorodnitsky

Dan Samorodnitsky

News Editor

Dan Samorodnitsky is the news editor at BioSpace. He has a decade of experience covering biotech, genetics and medicine. Before coming to BioSpace he was an editor at Drug Discovery News and Massive Science, and his writing has appeared in outlets such as Quanta, STAT, GROW and many others. He is based in Minneapolis. You can reach him at dan.samorodnitsky@biospace.com.

New draft guidance from the FDA on multiple myeloma endpoints reflects the new technology available to assess disease and how patient journeys have changed with better treatments.
The discovery of a tumor in a patient who received REGENXBIO’s gene therapy for Hurler syndrome prompted the FDA to place a hold on that program along with the company’s Hunter syndrome program, which is awaiting an FDA decision on or before Feb. 8.
Roche’s obesity candidate achieves 22.5% weight loss in Phase II; Moderna pulls the plug on late-stage vaccine trials as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine policies and rhetoric continues; and embattled gene therapy maker Sarepta announces new data in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
After a patient safety signal and then death, the FDA in October 2025 placed holds on two of the company’s CRISPR programs for hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis.
JPM
With the biopharma industry performing better of late, analysts, executives and other industry watchers are “cautiously optimistic”—a term heard all over the streets of San Francisco at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference earlier this month.
After a spate of patient deaths in 2025 linked to the company’s Duchenne gene therapy, Sarepta shared new data showing benefits of the therapy three years after dosing.
Reporting Q4 and full year earnings on Wednesday, J&J executives hailed growth across the healthcare giant’s portfolio while standing fast on its talc lawsuit and tariffs.
After winning a surprise approval for its hereditary angioedema drug Ekterly, KalVista is confident the oral offering will capture the lion’s share of the market for on-demand use.
The obesity market and Most Favored Nation drug pricing were among the topics de jour at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference last week, while smaller biotechs sought to assure investors that their regulatory ducks are in a row; Novo Nordisk’s oral obesity pill got off to a hot start while the FDA delayed a decision on Eli Lilly’s investigational offering; and SpyGlass Pharma and AgomAb Therapeutics join the 2026 IPO club.
Biohaven has suffered a few setbacks in recent months, including an FDA rejection and a missed $150 million benchmark payment, but CEO Vlad Coric looked for the brighter side at JPM, specifically emphasizing a serendipitous discovery that could get the company in the obesity game.
After a cacophony of troubles hit the RNA editing biotech last fall, CEO Ram Aiyar is in San Francisco to develop partnerships, pitch the potential of its new AATD program and find more money to keep the dream alive.
It doesn’t matter how many times you have traversed Union Square; no one knows which way is north, or where The Westin is in relation to the Ritz Carlton. A Verizon outage brought that into focus on Wednesday of JPM week.
HIV
At a J.P. Morgan media event Tuesday, the Gilead C-suite seemed to be walking on air as they highlighted Yeztugo’s capture of the HIV market and its plans for business development.
AbbVie and Novartis strike billion-dollar pacts while attendees at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference await that one big M&A deal and Merck teases limitless buying capacity; Eli Lilly readies for potential orforglipron launch while Novo Nordisk laments compounders; the IPO window cracks open; and the FDA concludes that GLP-1s do not pose a suicide risk.
Former European Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan and former U.S. Senator Richard Burr, speaking on a panel at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, pushed to see a larger picture beyond the Trump administration’s year of chaos and confusion.