News
In this bonus episode, BioSpace’s Vice President of Marketing Chantal Dresner and Careers Editor Angela Gabriel take a look at Q2 job market performance, layoffs and wider employment trends and policies impacting the biopharma workforce.
FEATURED STORIES
Cell and gene therapy leaders say the agency’s decision to remove the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies that had been attached to approved CAR T cancer therapies reflects “thoughtful consideration of real-world evidence” and “regulatory trust.”
Big Pharmas like Eli Lilly, Sanofi and Novartis headed back to the dealmakers table multiple times, with 32 total deals counted across the industry for the first half.
Changing how biopharmas package their products, how regulators review new drugs and how mutated genes are fixed could make ultrarare disease treatments possible.
Job Trends
While there are benefits of having employees on-site, the limited workplace flexibility at some companies following the COVID-19 pandemic can affect not only employees but also organizations’ retention and attraction efforts.
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
BioSpace Senior Editor Annalee Armstrong reflects on the year that was, and what’s to come in 2025.
THE LATEST
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.
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.
Armed with the latest biological knowledge and cutting-edge computational techniques—and, of course, investor dollars—these six biotechs are playing in the largely underappreciated longevity space, developing therapies that may improve the quality of aging.