News

Roche has tapped Simcere Zaiming for a new T cell engager that could have broad application in B cell–mediated diseases including lymphoma and autoimmune conditions.
FEATURED STORIES
Well-known for its oncology efforts and making recent headlines for a rumored mega merger with AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb is also dedicating considerable resources to neurological and psychiatric diseases, with a “continuum of care” mindset.
The U.S. is scrambling to compete with a strategically positioned China on the biotech stage as the Asian country surpasses America in biomedical research and clinical trials. So far, China is winning.
Thanks in part to the revolution cell therapy brought to treating blood cancers, the modality is now showing promise in some autoimmune applications. This expansion is poised to yield even wider benefits.
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
The FDA has been trying to mend fences with rare disease drug developers and patient groups since the departure of former Commissioner Marty Makary three months ago. But advisory committee meetings last week for Replimune and Capricor Therapeutics only created more confusion and frustration.
THE LATEST
Safety and dosing are likely to be “key differentiators” for Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals as it looks to challenge Ionis Pharmaceuticals’ lead in the severe hypertriglyceridemia market.
With the acquisition of Merida Biosciences, Eli Lilly is gaining a precision degradation platform for therapies that selectively target and destroy pathologic antibodies for allergic and autoimmune diseases.
The approval of rusfertide—now to be branded Mimrylo—for polycythemia vera marks a key win for Takeda, which now has crossed the FDA finish line for two of three critical product launches slated for the coming year.
Shares of Germany-based BioNTech were down as much as 8% Friday after announcing a Phase 2 trial of autogene cevumeran would be discontinued for futility. The news follows Merck and Moderna’s Phase 3 win last week for their cancer vaccine plus Keytruda in melanoma.
AstraZeneca and Ionis Pharmaceuticals’ data drop divulging more details from its highly watched Phase 3 transthyretin silencer trial “further confuses the picture” for Wainua when combined with the standard of care for ATTR-CM, analysts say.
Teva Pharmaceuticals is the ‘stalking horse bidder’ to kick off the auction process for BioXcel Therapeutics’ AI-derived assets as the biotech files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
FDA
With the approval, Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro becomes the first dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist indicated to lower the risk of heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death in adults with type 2 diabetes.
Through its DualityBio deal, Roche’s Genentech hopes to create antibody-drug conjugates with payloads that can circumvent growing cancer drug resistance.
Lisraya carries a boxed warning typical of JAK inhibitors, but otherwise has a broad label that allows use in all adults with the rare autoimmune disease, setting up the drug for blockbuster status in a few years, according to Leerink.
Even without specific Phase 3 data yet revealed, analysts see AstraZeneca and Amgen’s Tezspire as a potential threat for Dupixent in eosinophilic esophagitis.