Drug Development

FEATURED STORIES
While Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors are often hailed as the next big breakthrough in multiple sclerosis, Immunic Therapeutics and others are leveraging neuroprotective targets and remyelination to keep the disease at bay.
Talks between pharma and successive U.K. governments have failed to deliver the market access terms that the industry wants, contributing to a pullback in investment.
With AbbVie’s $1.2 billion acquisition of Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals’ lead depression drug, the psychedelic therapeutics space has soundly rebounded from Lykos’ rejection last year. There are now seven programs in Phase III trials across the sector, with multiple companies vying for that first approval.
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New interim data from a Phase III trial puts the company on track to file for FDA approval next year in an indication that not only lacks a disease-modifying treatment but suffered significant setbacks after a patient died in a clinical trial for Sarepta’s investigational gene therapy.
In this deep dive, BioSpace investigates China’s rise as a biotech powerhouse.
Intellia earlier this year reported a similar grade 4 liver enzyme elevation associated with the gene therapy nexiguran ziclumeran, though analysts at BMO Capital Markets at the time brushed it off as a “non-concern.”
ALS
The BioSpace 40 Under 40 winner opens up about his very personal career transformation from wealth management to biotech—and what it’s like to develop a drug for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia as a potential patient himself.
Last month, “historic positive results” from uniQure’s gene therapy snapped the Huntington’s community out of years of failure. As the biotech prepares to submit for FDA approval, BioSpace looks at four more candidates on the near horizon.
Pivotal results from uniQure’s gene therapy for Huntington’s disease have brought new light to patients who have known only disappointment in recent years—but one expert worries that communication of the results is creating “false expectations.”
Sales of Sanofi’s COVID-19 and flu vaccines fell 17% in the third quarter amid declining vaccination rates and pricing pressures in Europe.
Despite showing no meaningful benefit on lung function, Arcturus’ mRNA therapy ARCT-032 reduced mucus volume in patients with cystic fibrosis—an outcome William Blair found “potentially promising.”
A key question for investors going forward will be whether Moderna’s other latent virus vaccines for Epstein-Barr and shingles can succeed after the failure of the CMV program.
Pfizer, Merck, AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb were among the many biopharmas showing off novel cancer modalities at ESMO, with antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies and kinase inhibitors demonstrating encouraging efficacy and safety for various cancers.