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If ultimately confirmed, Makary’s planned departure, broken by The Wall Street Journal Friday afternoon, would follow a controversial tenure in which his deputy and constant co-author Vinay Prasad riled biopharma feathers with myriad unexpected drug rejections. Prasad stepped down as biologics chief last week.
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The Department of Health and Human Services is spinning its wheels, unable to establish steady leadership at three major divisions—the CDC and the FDA’s two primary review units.
FDA
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health department has consistently touted radical transparency as being key to its mission. Recent instances—the FDA’s decision not to disclose the recipients of three Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers and FDA and CDC choices not to publish vaccine-related papers—call this intent into question.
In Salt Lake City, biotech founders new and seasoned reflect on ways to ride out the industry’s challenges, such as sending cold emails to investors and learning to address leadership weaknesses.
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Investors drove up the price of Kyverna Therapeutics’ stock by 59% in its initial public offering on Thursday afternoon, the first day of trading, reaching a peak per-share price of $35.01.
Gilead Sciences is ending the development of magrolimab for the treatment of blood cancer following the FDA’s placement of a clinical hold on all its programs related to the drug.
Kyowa Kirin’s dealmaking continued on Wednesday when BridgeBio Pharma granted the Japanese company an exclusive license to develop and commercialize infigratinib.
BioNTech will pay $50 million in cash and purchase $200 million of Autolus Therapeutics’ shares to progress the companies’ respective CAR-T candidates to commercialization.
On Thursday, Kyverna Therapeutics is debuting on the Nasdaq with an upsized initial public offering which the biotech will use to support its pipeline of anti-CD19 CAR T therapy candidates.
Thursday’s full-year financial results from AstraZeneca showed a revenue crash of more than 90% for COVID-19 medicines, while cancer, cardiovascular and rare diseases all generated double-digit revenue growth.
The European Medicines Agency is looking into how Novo Holdings’ recently announced $16.5 billion acquisition of contract manufacturer Catalent might affect the availability of drugs.
Under the FDA’s compassionate use program, an eyedrop formulation of Krystal Biotech’s Vyjuvek restored the vision of a teenager with the rare genetic disease dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa.
A proposed class-action lawsuit accuses Johnson & Johnson of failing to negotiate fair prescription drug prices for its employees, but experts note that the company is also on the hook for benefits costs.
Takeda, AbbVie and Moderna are among the companies with open positions.