News

AlgoTherapeutix blames a “strong placebo effect” for the mid-stage failure for its pain gel ATX01, but the company still believes in the promise of its candidate as Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ first-in-class drug Journavx opens up the non-opioid space.
FEATURED STORIES
FDA
The groundwork being done in 2024 is building the foundation for global collaboration in the future.
With the antibody drug conjugate market projected to hit $28 billion by 2028, some companies are looking to harness the drugs for immunotherapy.
Patient assistance programs may actually be a two-way street, providing patients with drugs and companies with data.
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
Vaccine skepticism is at an all-time high in the U.S., and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is making some drastic moves in the name of reversing that trend. But misinformation and inconsistencies within the country’s healthcare agencies highlight problems with his approach.
THE LATEST
The FDA has put a stop to U.S. initiation of PepGen’s Phase II trial for its Duchene muscular dystrophy treatment. The company faced the same hurdle for an earlier neuromuscular candidiate in 2023.
Novo’s latest investment comes just days after the U.S. FTC greenlit the highly contentious acquisition of Catalent, which analysts expect will help the pharma expand its production capacity.
The Nimble acquisition, which follows the $1.4 billion buy of Aliada Therapeutics in October, will help AbbVie rebuild and cement its long-term growth prospects following the Phase II failure of emraclidine in schizophrenia and in anticipation of market erosion for Skyrizi and Rinvoq, according to Guggenheim Partners analysts.
Now that they’ve received the go-signal from both U.S. and EU anti-trust regulators, Novo Holdings and Catalent expect to wrap up their deal in the coming days.
Even as Biogen and Eisai’s Leqembi and Eli Lilly’s Kisunla slowly roll out onto the market, experts question the efficacy of these anti-amyloid antibodies and the amyloid hypothesis overall.
Novartis, Biogen, Takeda and Novo Nordisk are all betting on advances in the molecular glue degraders space, collectively investing billions in hopes of treating cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiometabolic disease and more.
Some 90% of investigational drugs fail—and success rates are even more dire in the neuro space. Here, BioSpace looks at five clinical trial flops that stole headlines over the past 12 months.
Blackstone and Bain Capital are said to be among the final bidders for the Japanese company’s Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, sources told Reuters Friday.
RSV
Following news of RSV lower respiratory tract infections in infants immunized with Moderna’s investigational RNA vaccines, FDA advisors said the trial investigators should continue the study, while keeping an eye out for further safety signals.
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review flagged five drugs whose prices were raised in 2023 with no evidence to support it. Meanwhile, the makers of these drugs have been reporting double-digit sales growth for many of these products.