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The UCSF professor and frequent YouTube poster has criticized COVID-19 vaccine mandates as well as the accelerated approval pathway and other FDA practices. Predictions of what his tenure might achieve are scattershot.
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Policy uncertainties are impacting biopharma dealmaking from continent to continent, with companies being asked to walk a tightrope on their relations with China.
Major pharmaceutical companies are committing billions to US manufacturing in an effort to avoid steep tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump.
In a recent interview, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said there “should be nothing political about the FDA.” Recent actions taken by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and others within the department appear to be at odds with this sentiment.
Job Trends
Nearly half of BioSpace poll respondents recently took a biopharma job they were overqualified for, a finding that didn’t surprise a talent acquisition expert, who said it’s become much more likely to happen.
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In the five weeks since Donald Trump returned as U.S. president, the FDA, NIH and CDC have been thrown into disarray, with meetings regarding vaccines and rare diseases canceled or indefinitely postponed—all without a clear reason why.
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Vertex has recorded some 25,000 prescriptions for Journavx since its January approval and is in the process of getting big PBMs to cover the non-opioid pain drug.
The biotech’s Huntingtin-targeting molecule lowered blood levels of the protein and elicited functional improvements in earlier-stage patients, but results were not as robust in other biomarkers or with patients at later stages of the disease.
Bristol Myers Squibb has made significant cuts to its workforce since last year as part of a strategic reorganization aimed at saving $3.5 billion through 2027. The latest cuts in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, bring that area’s total number of disclosed cuts this year to 806.
BNT327, a PD-L1/VEGF therapy, is still currently being manufactured in China, but BioNTech is working to establish a diversified supply chain, executives said during the company’s Q1 investor call.
The cell and gene therapy space in recent months has hit several speedbumps, including layoffs, dropped drugs and discontinued partnerships.
The FDA accepted Novo Nordisk’s NDA for an oral formulation of Wegovy. The agency is expected to release its verdict on the drug in the fourth quarter of this year.
The FDA’s user free programs account for just under half of the agency’s budget—money that could be imperiled by the recent staffing exodus.
On the FDA’s docket this month are two expansion bids, one for GSK’s asthma drug Nucala into COPD and another for Merck’s oral cancer drug for a pair of rare tumors.
Beam Therapeutics and Verve Therapeutics have each built their lead candidates on a technique billed as a safer alternative to conventional CRISPR. Clinical results have so far been promising.
Following challenges with its drug candidate bexotegrast and announcement of a limited-duration stockholder rights program, Pliant is paring back its workforce.