News
YouTube has shut down a channel containing hundreds of videos of comments made by doctors and other influencers—including CBER Director Vinay Prasad, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya—during the pandemic. This comes as Prasad reveals further details about last week’s updated COVID-19 approvals.
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After a demoralizing period punctuated by the withdrawal of one of the few marketed therapies for ALS, investment in new biotechs, state-backed collaborative initiatives and buzz at BIO2025 suggest a new day in drug development for one of medicine’s most intractable diseases.
With a flurry of recent Big Pharma investment in radiopharmaceutical therapeutics, the FDA issued draft guidance last month in a move former FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn sees as the regulator “trying to get ahead on a new set of therapy that they see becoming very important for cancer.”
While trade groups hail the executive order as a national health security opportunity, analysts warn that production costs could go up in the near term.
Job Trends
1 in 5 respondents either have had or do have a fractional role, according to a recent BioSpace poll, and over half are considering it. Two recruitment experts, a fractional worker and an aspiring fractional worker share their insights.
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Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
When it comes to vaccination, the COVID-19 pandemic divided American society. President Donald Trump and his new Health and Human Services secretary are bringing down the hammer. What happens when there is no middle ground?
THE LATEST
Blank check deals dwindled after a crazy 2021. Now, biotechs are starting to turn to special purpose acquisition companies again as an easy route to the public markets.
Some of the biggest SPACs from the industry’s pandemic-fueled heyday are no longer on the market.
After spinning out of BridgeBio in May 2024, BBOT had an eye on another round of fundraising in 2025. A SPAC quickly emerged as the best option.
Paul Offit, longtime member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee and an outspoken critic of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was recently informed by the Department of Health and Human Services that his services are no longer required.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals commits $45 million upfront to leverage Enlaza Therapeutics’ War-Lock platform to create drug conjugates and T cell engagers for autoimmune diseases and gentler conditioning for sickle cell/beta thalassemia gene-editing therapy Casgevy.
The French giant is gaining access to darovasertib, a small molecule protein kinase C inhibitor already in Phase II/III trials, with rights for the whole world besides the U.S.
Novartis is licensing ARO-SNCA, a preclinical siRNA therapy for synucleinopathies, a group of neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson’s disease.
The OMass partnership will boost Roche’s strategy in inflammatory bowel diseases, currently led by afimkibart, an anti-TL1A therapy the pharma obtained from its $7.1 billion acquisition of Telavant in 2023.
Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy has been on a winning streak as of late, with a metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis approval last month and prime position in the oral obesity race.
While the approval of Leqembi Iqlik bodes well for Biogen and Eisai’s planned application for a subcutaneous induction regimen next year, its financial impact remains “uncertain,” as potentially higher revenues from the injection could be offset by steeper costs of production, according to Jefferies.