News

In its 2025 full year and fourth-quarter earnings call, Merck executives touted the merits of recent deals and what CEO Robert Davis called “probably the broadest and widest pipeline we’ve had in years.”
FEATURED STORIES
After suffering in the wake of expired tax incentives for pharmas, the island is trying to take advantage of geopolitics to grow its drug manufacturing sector.
AstraZeneca’s $15 billion pledge to its China operations highlights the country’s advantages. But other regions are also hoping to host more clinical studies.
With Lykos’ regulatory failure now squarely in the rearview mirror, Compass Pathways and Definium are leading what one analyst suspects will be “a very big year for psychedelics.”
Job Trends
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
Phacilitate’s annual event dawns as cell and gene therapies reach a new tipping point: the science has hit new heights just as regulatory and government policies spark momentum and frustration.
THE LATEST
Experts suggest the FDA’s Advanced Manufacturing Technologies designation could be a lifeline for improving production processes for approved cell and gene therapies.
Johnson & Johnson will discontinue the Phase II Auτonomy study of posdinemab after a scheduled review found the anti-tau antibody failed to slow clinical decline in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease.
Analysts agree that the failure of Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide to reduce Alzheimer’s disease progression removes a “modest” or “perceived” overhang on Biogen and the anti-amyloid antibody class in general, clearing the way for increased uptake of Leqembi and Eli Lilly’s Kisunla.
“We felt we had a responsibility to explore semaglutide’s potential, despite a low likelihood of success,” Martin Holst Lange, Novo’s R&D chief, said on Monday.
NervGen will meet with the FDA early next year to align on a regulatory path forward for NVG-291 in chronic spinal cord injury.
Asundexian’s Phase III win could also bode well for Bristol Myers Squibb, which is also developing a Factor XIa inhibitor called milvexian for stroke prevention, analysts said.
A source familiar with the matter said the White House initially requested the resignation of Sanjula Jain-Nagpal, a policy and research official at the FDA.
Mixed headlines have plagued the cell and gene therapy space of late. We believe that a renewed case of optimism is not only warranted but essential if these therapies are to reach their full potential.
FDA
Since July, several biotechs have been forced to pivot as previous agreements with the FDA around evidence required for approval were reversed, a phenomenon that, according to experts, could portend a more restrictive regulator.
The regulator has received reports that a group of patients treated with Adzynma had neutralizing antibodies against the protein the therapy replaces.