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After Replimune’s advanced melanoma drug was rejected for a second time, CEO Sushil Patel slammed the FDA for failing to exercise regulatory flexibility, while other experts bemoaned the agency’s lack of consistency. With new safety guidelines for gene editing therapies, the FDA has taken a first step toward fixing both problems.
The Merck update, which will shed light on a $588 million bet to succeed Keytruda, is part of a roster of presentations that could shape the future of ADCs, protein degraders and KRAS-targeted therapies.
Gilead, AstraZeneca and Vertex have acquired more than just a therapeutic asset in recent deals. BioSpace takes a look at five recent transactions where the staff was the real centerpiece.
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Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy has a few months’ head start on Eli Lilly’s newly approved pill. While the Indianapolis pharma has come from behind the Danish rival in the weight loss space before, last time it clearly had the better drug.
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Despite the failure of its Recognify-partnered inidascamine, Jefferies analysts do not expect a definitively negative stock impact on atai, given the company’s promising psychedelic pipeline.
Acknowledging the limits of disease-modifying drugs like Leqembi and Kisunla, companies like Bristol Myers Squibb, Acadia, Otsuka and Lundbeck are renewing a decades-old search for symptomatic treatments, including in high-profile drugs like Cobenfy.
These five upcoming data drops could usher in more effective and convenient therapies for Alzheimer’s disease and open up novel pathways of action to treat the memory-robbing illness.
The Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers aim to offer accelerated pathways to drugs that meet certain criteria, perhaps including a low price-tag. But the policy is vaguely defined and was announced without public input, going against the FDA’s own published practices, experts say.
The collaboration focuses on ‘molecular gates,’ a class of molecules that the startup company Gate Bioscience says can stop pathogenic proteins from leaving the cell.
The European Union’s health regulatory agency did not endorse approving Elevidys for ambulatory patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
The strategic reprioritization comes after the company hit two major hurdles in the past year, including a clinical hold for an investigational gene therapy and an FDA rejection for its lead asset.
CBER is unanimously against Elevdiys’ return to the market without additional evidence, according to media reports citing an anonymous senior FDA official. Given Elevidys’ full approval, however, experts told BioSpace this path would set up a length legal battle between the regulator and Sarepta Therapeutics.
The company didn’t share specific data for the molecule, gefurulimab, but said it hit all endpoints in the Phase III PREVAIL trial and promised to share more at an upcoming scientific meeting.
I&I
The partnership with Matchpoint Therapeutics gets Novartis global rights on all molecules for several unannounced inflammatory diseases identified through the biotech’s discovery platform.