News

With the latest round, Roche’s Genentech will have racked up nearly 450 layoffs in California over the last year amid ongoing restructuring. At the same time, the biotech is joining forces with Astex Pharmaceuticals in a deal that could surpass $490 million.
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FDA
Significant leadership instability at the FDA—compounded by continued workforce attrition—led to a slight slowdown in overall regulatory productivity in the first half of this year, but the agency has been catching up of late.
Congressional letters sent to the CEOs of Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Merck, BMS and AbbVie this week voicing concerns about the pharmas’ clinical trials in China highlight an ongoing discrepancy in how government and industry think about the rise of the Asian country’s biotech industry.
The total of 52 mergers and acquisitions for the first half of 2026 reflects what analysts, industry watchers and executives are saying over and over: M&A is back.
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Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
If cell and gene therapy makers are going to achieve their mission to improve patients’ lives, the industry must come together to share information across stakeholders, from regulators to manufacturers to payers.
THE LATEST
The four highest doses of Eli Lilly’s blockbuster diabetes treatment Mounjaro will be in short supply through the rest of the month due to strong demand, according to the regulator.
Acorda Therapeutics becomes the latest biotechnology company in 2024 to go bankrupt and shutter its business, following years of financial difficulty. Merz Therapeutics will acquire two commercial medicines from Acorda for $185 million.
FDA
After sustaining a regulatory defeat in insomnia, Vanda Pharmaceuticals on Tuesday won the FDA’s approval for its atypical antipsychotic Fanapt for the treatment of manic or mixed episodes in adults with bipolar I disorder.
Genmab announced Wednesday it is buying ProfoundBio and its pipeline of next-generation antibody-drug conjugates being developed for gynecologic cancers and other solid tumors.
With second-generation antibody-drug conjugates, Eli Lilly, Daiichi Sankyo and others look to reduce toxicity and improve the magnitude and duration of response.
The new Cambridge, Mass.–based facility is about 460,000 square feet. Labs occupy nearly 50% of the space.
Read the latest overview of people coming and going from executive positions at biopharma companies that BioSpace covers.
FDA
Plus, another big buy points to strength of CDMO market and a new treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension
Under the agreement, Ipsen nabs exclusive global rights for development and commercialization of Sutro Biopharma’s STRO-003, an antibody-drug conjugate which is completing the final stages of preclinical development.
The biotech’s personalized neoantigen vaccine for colorectal cancer did not demonstrate a molecular response difference from the control arm. Gritstone blames trial protocol and plans for a Phase III study.