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FDA
Following the FDA’s refusal to review Moderna’s investigational mRNA flu vaccine last week, Commissioner Marty Makary faced questions from the U.S. president about the agency’s handling of vaccines. It’s a clear signal that the tension long brewing at the drug regulator has now gone all the way to the top.
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Many scientists-turned-CEOs paradoxically abandon scientific principles when it comes to commercializing their innovations. But applying the scientific method to business decisions can help life science entrepreneurs avoid common pitfalls, attract investment and ultimately bring transformative technologies to market.
FDA vouchers are normally a coveted prize for biopharma companies, but a surprise rejection for Disc Medicine’s rare disease drug has biopharma reconsidering.
PitchBook’s 2025 biopharma VC analysis clocked $33.8 billion in capital dispatched in 2025, mainly to companies with later-stage programs ready to roll into the clinic.
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FDA
The FDA’s refusal to review Moderna’s mRNA-based flu vaccine is part of a larger communications crisis unfolding at the agency over the past nine months that has also ensnarled Sarepta, Capricor, uniQure and many more.
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The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will work with Gilead and other private backers to ensure the HIV preventive Yeztugo, approved last month by the FDA, is available in low- and middle-income countries, concurrent with high-income nations.
The number of employees laid off and companies letting people go increased year over year during the first half of 2025. BioSpace recaps the five largest layoff rounds, including cuts at Bayer, BMS and Teva.
Nuclidium’s radiopharmaceutical platform is unique in its use of copper-based payloads, which the biotech claims can deliver higher doses while also being safer.
The deal gives AstraZeneca’s rare disease unit Alexion access to specialized capsids developed by the Japanese biotech JCR Pharmaceuticals for use in up to five of Alexion’s gene therapies.
M&A
In the second biggest acquisition of the year, Merck gains the commercial COPD drug Ohtuvayre, which could help offset the loss of revenue when Keytruda’s patent expires later this decade.
The high court’s order blocks a May decision by a California court that temporarily blocked the efforts of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to drastically reduce the size of his agency’s workforce.
Leerink Partners called the announcement a ‘positive’ given the delayed timeframe and the uncertainty that the administration will implement tariffs at all.
The FDA will allow a new dosing schedule for Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s drug Kisunla that could lessen a known side effect of the monoclonal antibody drug class that has led to several deaths.
H2 2025 catalysts to watch, biopharma implications of President Trump’s tax law, KalVista’s new hereditary angioedema drug that Marty Makary reportedly tried to reject, another lawsuit aimed at Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a plea from patients with ALS for access to BrainStorm’s NurOwn.
Actithera’s radiopharma assets irreversibly bind to their targets, allowing for longer retention of the drug inside tumors.