Drug Development

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In the midst of regulatory and political upheaval, biopharma’s R&D engine kept running, churning out highs and lows in equal parts. Here are some of this year’s most glorious clinical trial victories.
Every year in biopharma brings its share of grueling defeats, and 2025 was no different, especially for companies targeting neurological diseases. Some failures split up partners, and one particularly egregious case even led to the demise of an entire company.
The R&D pipeline for depression therapies faced a demoralizing 2025 as five high-profile candidates, including KOR antagonists by Johnson & Johnson and Neumora Therapeutics, flunked late-stage clinical trials, underscoring the persistent challenges of CNS drug development.
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New recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call for the use of respiratory syncytial virus vaccines in adults aged 75 and older, but limited its use in 60- to 74-year-olds.
Zealand Pharma is looking to build on last week’s positive Phase Ib trial results by raising around $1 billion in a public offering, with the proceeds being used to advance its obesity candidates.
One patient died of respiratory failure in a Phase I study of Lyell Immunopharma’s investigational CAR-T therapy. The company on Wednesday said it has not definitively linked the fatality to the treatment.
After back-to-back failures in 2021, Wave Life Sciences has finally aced a Phase Ib/IIa Huntington’s disease trial and is looking to a potential accelerated approval for its investigational antisense oligonucleotide.
FDA
After winning expanded approval for its gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Sarepta’s leadership and analysts see a sizeable commercial opportunity on the horizon.
Following success in several indications including ulcerative colitis, J&J’s blockbuster drug Tremfya failed to meet a mid-stage study’s primary endpoint in treating giant cell arteritis.
AstraZeneca’s PD-L1 inhibitor failed to significantly improve disease-free survival in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, but hit its primary endpoint in a late-stage trial in muscle-invasive bladder cancer.
If approved, ensifentrine would be the first non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, offering an option with potentially fewer side effects.
Merck KGaA’s drug candidate xevinapant in a late-stage trial was unable to significantly improve event-free survival in patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer.
Novo Nordisk on Monday announced it is boosting its manufacturing capabilities with a $4.1 billion commitment to construct a second fill and finishing facility in Clayton, North Carolina.