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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Second-quarter earnings season continues with Big Pharma beating Wall Street expectations, the author of an encrypted email sent to BioSpace has a proposal for Moderna and Merck, Roche and Viking seek quicker entry to the obesity market, and AAIC is in full swing.
Sangamo and Pfizer’s hemophilia A gene therapy candidate scored a Phase III victory last week. However, with the genomic medicine company soon to run out of cash, Sangamo’s short-term prospects look bleak but not unsalvageable, analysts say.
The advantages of using circular RNAs—including increased durability, enhanced protein expression and substantially lower manufacturing costs compared to linear mRNAs—have driven a spate of investment in this technology.
Cognitive function in the liraglutide cohort declined 18% slower than in the placebo arm over one year of treatment, researchers announced Tuesday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.
BioNTech and Regeneron will face off against Merck and Moderna, which are advancing their investigational cancer vaccine mRNA-4157/V940 in combination with Keytruda, in advanced melanoma.
Adding to growing evidence of its benefits beyond glucose control and weight loss, Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic could also potentially help diabetics quit smoking, according to new research.
AstraZeneca is seeking a fixed-duration approval for Calquence, which will allow patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia to take breaks from the therapy and prevent excessive toxicities and drug resistance.
Back-to-back failures in psoriasis and Crohn’s disease have forced Ventyx Biosciences to abandon the development of its investigational oral TYK2 inhibitor VTX958.
Flagship Pioneering and its portfolio companies are in line to receive up to $720 million in milestones for each of the 10 programs that GSK could option, according to Monday’s announcement.
Fatalities are an unfortunate reality of clinical trials. How can companies best protect themselves?