News

The failure of Roche’s Ionis-partnered tominersen in Huntington’s disease may indicate that Wave Life Sciences’ allele-specific antisense oligonucleotide candidate WVE-003 is on the right track, according to analysts at Rodman & Renshaw.
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The lineup at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference will provide critical insight into where the industry is headed with regard to targets being explored to vanquish the elusive neurodegenerative disease.
Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are pushing for the withdrawal of the rare disease treatment that accounted for just 1% of Amgen’s 2025 revenue. Nevertheless, Amgen continues to defend the medicine, which was acquired in the $3.7 billion buyout of ChemoCentryx.
Psychedelics are gaining momentum in depression, with one treating physician predicting that the drug class could “wipe out the SSRIs” if safety and durability hold up.
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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.
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FDA
The regulator approved Xacduro for treating hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia. The NDA was filed by Entasis Therapeutics, which Innoviva acquired in 2022.
Despite a disappointing showing in the Phase III MOVE-FA trial, PTC Therapeutics says it will move forward with regulatory talks for the Friedreich’s ataxia treatment. Meanwhile, the company is discontinuing several early-stage gene therapies and reducing its headcount.
While the exact settlement details are confidential, the deal will allow Amgen to launch its Stelara biosimilar no later than January 1, 2025.
The Massachusetts-based company has claimed the year’s largest fundraise so far and secured a powerhouse R&D partner in Novo Nordisk to develop gene editing medicines.
The Massachusetts-based startup’s goal is to develop RNA medicines that can treat diseases anywhere in the body using an “all-in-one” platform.
The Swiss pharma has canceled a second mid-stage trial for its investigational schizophrenia drug ralmitaront, as the competition shows promise in the space.
FDA
With the FDA’s approval on Monday, Ayvakit is the first and only treatment for adults with indolent systemic mastocytosis, a rare hematologic disorder, according to Blueprint Medicines.
FDA
Indivior’s Opvee is an emergency nasal spray medication to reverse opioid overdose approved for patients aged 12 years and above with signs of respiratory or central nervous system depression.
Ex-FDA Neuroscience Director Billy Dunn was appointed to Prothena’s board of directors last week. Industry representatives and regulatory experts weigh in on the potential ethical implications.
Data from a Phase III trial of apraglutide for a type of short bowel syndrome with intestinal failure is expected by the end of the year. It is also in a Phase II study for acute graft-versus-host disease.