News
The FDA is mired in uncertainty with some staffers losing their jobs over the weekend and more potentially to come, vaccines and psychedelic therapies could be facing very different futures under newly confirmed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Moderna continues its downward revenue slide and Merck, Regeneron, BMS and more face strong patent headwinds.
FEATURED STORIES
Sheila Gujrathi, former CEO of Gossamer Bio, has written a new book that aims to offer the type of leadership manual she never had in her early career.
The startup, launched out of CEO Kevin Parker’s grad school idyll during the COVID lockdowns, is primed to find new targets where Big Pharmas won’t dare.
J&J reports today, just two weeks after Pfizer secured certainty on tariffs and drug pricing. Analysts expect to hear about plans from the rest of the industry during third period earnings calls.
Job Trends
A Kenilworth, NJ, R&D campus that formerly served as Merck’s global headquarters is now set to reopen and become the Northeast Science and Technology (NEST) Center.
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After Emma Walmsley steps down as GSK CEO in January, Vertex Pharma’s Reshma Kewalramani will be the sole female CEO at a top-20 pharma company. Still, there are many prominent women in pharma that could someday break through again.
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Starboard Value contends that Kenvue, with strong consumer health brands like Tylenol and Listerine, is underperforming its rivals, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Nucleus RadioPharma’s two sites are meant to help address the industry’s lack of manufacturing and development capabilities, as well as geographic limitations associated with the short half-life of many radioactive components.
Seaport Therapeutics, kick started by the former leaders of Karuna Therapeutics, has raised $225 million in an oversubscribed Series B to fund a pipeline of neuropsychiatric medicines.
Novo Nordisk on Monday reported the oral version of its drug semaglutide reduced the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in adults with type 2 diabetes by 14% in a large Phase III trial.
Sanofi will sell a 50% controlling stake in consumer healthcare unit Opella to private equity firm CD&R, with the French government taking a stake as well to ensure the business remains in the county.
In a short statement Friday, Lykos Therapeutics expressed optimism about a recent meeting with the regulator to discuss next steps for the embattled program, following the FDA’s rejection in August 2024.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman in a note to investors said the late-stage data for Vertex’s experimental non-opioid pain medication “reaffirms our confidence in the strength of suzetrigine’s profile.” However, William Blair analysts view these data as “an incremental positive” as the company faces challenges in targeting the acute pain market.
With Friday’s ruling by New Jersey District Judge Zahid Quraishi, Novartis joins a growing list of pharmaceutical companies that have failed in their legal challenges to the Inflation Reduction Act.
The regulator’s approval on Friday of Vyloy for gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer makes it the first and only claudin 18.2–targeted therapy approved in the U.S. for these indications, according to Astellas.