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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If approved in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Nucala will compete with Verona’s Ohtuvayre and—pending a potential approval later this month—Sanofi and Regeneron’s blockbuster Dupixent.
BioMarin executives sought to calm an anxious investor base Wednesday with a public address and pledge to achieve a nearly 50% bump in annual revenue by 2027. But analysts were left wanting.
Eli Lilly’s weekly insulin injection efsitora alfa secured two late-stage victories on Thursday in a potential blow to rival Novo Nordisk, which in July failed to secure the FDA’s approval for its basal insulin icodec.
A broad indication for MariTide could help Amgen secure Medicare coverage for the treatment following FDA approval, CEO Robert Bradway said at Wednesday’s Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare Conference.
Like its U.S. and European counterparts, Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency found no conclusive link between the use of GLP-1s and a heightened risk of suicidal and self-injury thoughts.
Days after Sanofi reported back-to-back failures for its BTK inhibitor, Roche’s fenebrutinib on Wednesday scored a mid-stage win in relapsing multiple sclerosis, demonstrating near-total elimination of disease activity.
The investigational injection fosgonimeton appeared to have better efficacy in patients with more severe disease, according to post-hoc subgroup analyses, though none resulted in statistically significant effects.
Recursion’s oral drug candidate for cerebral cavernous malformation showed no improvements in patient- or physician-reported outcomes at 12 months. The biotech will engage with the FDA to determine the need for an additional study.
Bayer’s Kerendia, at the center of a $3 billion sales forecast, reduced the risk of cardiovascular death and heart failure in a Phase III trial.
The highly anticipated results come as the company makes significant changes to its C-suite. Despite the turnover, Dyne said it is looking toward expedited approval pathways for its DMD treatment.