News

FDA
Fallout from the resignation of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary continues as several other senior regulators are removed from their posts; pharma’s top paid CEOs make up to 358 times more than their employees; Revolution Medicine’s pancreatic cancer results highlight movement in the deadly disease space; more.
FEATURED STORIES
Biotech is increasingly financed, governed and regulated as though it were a mature pharmaceutical industry rather than a discovery system built around scientific uncertainty. Structural changes are needed to sustain the sector’s strategic innovation.
BioSpace examines how the FDA approval of Eli Lilly’s oral obesity drug Foundayo has ignited a key race with Novo Nordisk.
Nusano will bring a massive new radioisotope facility in Salt Lake City online by the end of the year, establishing a supply of starting materials for the next generation of radiopharmaceuticals.
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Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
The Department of Health and Human Services is spinning its wheels, unable to establish steady leadership at three major divisions—the CDC and the FDA’s two primary review units.
THE LATEST
Despite meeting the primary endpoint in a Phase III study, two patients treated with Merck and Daiichi Sankyo’s experimental antibody-drug conjugate died in a Phase III non-small cell lung cancer study, though the deaths have not been linked to patritumab deruxtecan.
In metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, a retrospective analysis shows that patients on GLP-1 receptor agonists are 14% less likely to progress to cirrhosis.
Boehringer Ingelheim’s investigational compound nerandomilast, which targets the PDE4B enzyme involved in fibrosis and inflammation in the lungs, met its primary endpoint in a late-stage study.
RSV
The newly approved filling line will be able to provide both 50-mg and 100-mg doses of the respiratory syncytial virus antibody Beyfortus to help meet demand ahead of the 2024/2025 RSV season.
Bristol Myers Squibb presented the positive Phase III results on its already approved Opdivo-Yervoy combo at ESMO over the weekend, while separately announcing that it was returning Immatics’ bispecific T cell engager.
Friday’s approval comes after a previous rejection in October 2023 due to manufacturing concerns.
The result comes months after an FDA advisory committee flagged the risk of potential overtreatment with perioperative regimens.

High response rates reported by GSK and iTeos at the 2024 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress offer a ray of light for anti-TIGIT therapies after a string of failures.
ALS
Launched in 2020 to more quickly bring to market an effective medicine for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the HEALEY Platform Trial has generated disappointing results for many but also continuing programs from Clene and Prilenia.
FDA
The FDA has six target action dates ahead to round out September as drugs for gastroparesis, Niemann-Pick disease type C and more await decisions.