Drug Development

FEATURED STORIES
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.
Subscribe to ClinicaSpace
Clinical trial results, research news, the latest in cancer and cell and gene therapy, in your inbox every Monday
THE LATEST
New revelations from the showdown between Novo Nordisk’s CEO and Bernie Sanders’ Senate health committee Tuesday; PhRMA’s legal victory in IRA case; the federal interest rate cut and anticipated approval for schizophrenia.
Amid a flurry of weight loss readouts, a fresh-on-the-scene startup has come out with Phase I results showing weight loss at day 36 on par with or better than competitors, with few gastrointestinal side effects.
Clinical trial results shared by Boehringer Ingelheim and Insilico Medicine showed improvement in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an intractable lung disease for which current treatment options fail to stop progression, but the data were limited, leaving experts wanting.
The FDA previously refused to review Biohaven’s candidate in the indication due to a failed late-stage trial. However, the company is now planning to file an NDA in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Stifel analyst Paul Matteis called Tuesday’s readout a “positive surprise” that could reinvigorate some investor enthusiasm for Biogen as the company “has essentially become an out-of-favor value stock,” driven by the slow launch of its Alzheimer’s disease therapy Leqembi.
As technology continues to evolve, companies should have strategies that incorporate an understand of where they are now, where they want to be, and do they have the talent to get there.
Before companies and investors look towards the future, they must first understand the opportunities and challenges AI presents to them. From the benefits included in advancing processes to cybersecurity hazards, AI innovation is a balanced scale of oppportunities and risks.
Monday’s failure to improve overall survival in breast cancer “further dents belief” in the companies’ Dato-DXd and “likely complicates regulatory discussions for approval of this indication,” Jefferies analyst Peter Welford wrote in a note to investors.
As the FDA prepares to render a verdict on BMS’ closely watched schizophrenia drug, BioSpace takes a closer look at the late-stage pipeline for this neuropsychiatric disorder.
The European Society for Medical Oncology’s annual meeting this week featured the hottest emergent areas of cancer treatment—antibody-drug conjugates, bispecifics and radiopharmaceuticals—while anti-TIGIT therapies made a bit of a comeback.