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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Analysts were happy with batoclimab’s performance in the chronic autoimmune disorder, but Immunovant said it will continue to focus on another next-gen asset for the indication.
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.
The explosion of GLP-1 weight loss drugs is reminiscent of the early days of PD-1 inhibitors, but key market differences suggest history may not repeat itself.
After a patient taking the Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene therapy Elevydis died of liver injury, Sarepta will update the label to reflect the safety signal.
The company unveiled plans last week to test its GLP-1/glucagon dual receptor agonist in alcohol use disorder and alcohol-related liver disease.
Dyne is eyeing an accelerated approval filing for DYNE-251 in early 2026 that would pit the asset against Sarepta’s Exondys 51 in a patient population amenable to exon 51 skipping.
Having established success in cancer, biopharma is now looking to leverage CAR T therapies against a new target, autoimmune disorders, with several early- to mid-stage readouts expected this year.
Ionis and Ultragenyx are competing to develop oligonucleotide treatments for Angelman syndrome, but will Neuren’s peptide catch up?
As obesity drug developers compete for the highest weight-loss efficacy, experts contend that overall health outcomes—evidenced by successful studies in therapeutic areas like cardiovascular and sleep apnea—may prove a greater market advantage.
The Maryland-based biopharma joins Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk in trialing a GLP-1 agonist for alcohol- and liver-related conditions.