Drug Development
Analysts said the outcome is disappointing because there are no approved treatments for dyskinetic cerebral palsy, but the setback had little impact on Neurocrine’s valuation.
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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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With $90 million to start, Syndeio has a lead asset in Phase II clinical trials for major depressive disorder, with plans to soon launch a biomarker trial in Alzheimer’s disease.
Prothena has already discontinued the development of birtamimab, and anticipates further spending cuts, including workforce reduction.
As the World Health Organization initiates a new agreement for coordinating global responses to future pandemics, the future of vaccine development in the U.S. faces growing challenges, including waning funding and regulatory changes, that threaten next-gen COVID-19 vaccine candidates and pandemic preparedness more broadly.
Vocal skeptics of COVID-19 vaccinations gave mRNA a bad name and government funding for mRNA research is now being cut. On the flip side, at least one CEO said the pandemic also provided “elevated acceleration” for the field, which also holds promise in therapeutics for cancer and rare diseases.
Beginning this week in Chicago, the American Association for Cancer Research’s annual conference will feature presentations that could have far-reaching implications for breast and blood cancers and more.
Analysts were effusive about Merus’ new HNSCC data, writing that petosemtamab could “become the standard of care” in the first-line setting for this indication.
In this episode presented by IQVIA, BioSpace’s head of insights Lori Ellis discusses the importance of target product profiles, particularly when navigating funding challenges, with Ian Fisher, head of development analytics.
From a higher bar for regulatory clearance to pricing limitations, drug development is more expensive than ever. This has led firms to make tough pipeline decisions early in the development process. The result may be costly for all of us.
Most of the 15 million children with a rare disease have no FDA-approved treatments available to them. And when it comes to the most-rare conditions, there isn’t even a pipeline.
The late-stage results come in advance of pivotal data that Ionis expects to provide for its antisense oligonucleotide Tryngolza in the third quarter, building up toward a regulatory submission in hypertriglyceridemia by year-end.