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FDA
As biotechs faced investors at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference this week, they emphasized agreement with the FDA on clinical trial design and regulatory pathways to approval. Atara, meanwhile, lamented the agency’s “complete reversal of position” after its therapy for a rare surgical complication was rejected.
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It doesn’t matter how many times you have traversed Union Square; no one knows which way is north, or where The Westin is in relation to the Ritz Carlton. A Verizon outage brought that into focus on Wednesday.
Primarily known as an immunology and neuroscience company, AbbVie wanted to put the biopharma world on notice during its J.P. Morgan presentation: its oncology portfolio is underappreciated. This week, the Illinois-based company dove into the sizzling PD-1/VEGF space with a licensing deal with China-based RemeGen.
Buying vaccine biotech Dynavax was an easy choice for Sanofi despite antivaccine moves by the Trump administration.
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With five CDER leaders in one year and regulatory proposals coming “by fiat,” the FDA is only making it more difficult to bring therapies to patients.
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China is adapting its Life Sciences policy to bolster innovation and data transparency. Big Pharma is taking note.
Months after posting weight loss of 7.5% at 36 days for patients taking MET-097i, Metsera releases mid-stage results of just over 11% average body weight reduction at 12 weeks, with no plateau and a promising safety profile.
The FDA’s guidance on AI in drug development points to potentially life-threatening consequences of the technology, highlighting the importance of providing the regulator with detailed information regarding models’ development and maintenance.
ALS
Denali’s failure on Monday continues biopharma’s losing streak against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. PTC Therapeutics and Amylyx have seen similarly disappointing results.
From ADCs and radiopharmaceuticals to cell and gene therapies, eager young startups are betting on advances in biopharma’s most competitive therapeutic spaces—and attracting dollars from Big Pharma.
The acquisition from Wuxi Biologics, the embattled CDMO named in the BIOSECURE Act, marks another expansion of Merck’s manufacturing operations in Ireland.
Eli Lilly and Company has invested more than $20 billion in its manufacturing capabilities since 2020 to help meet high demand for its medicines. Its recently announced Lilly Medicine Foundry—which will support research and development efforts—is just the latest example of the ability to research new ways of producing medicines, while also scaling up manufacturing of medicines for clinical trials.
In its Citizen Petition to the FDA, Novo Nordisk argued that there is no clinical need to allow compounding for liraglutide, the type 2 diabetes injection it sells as Victoza.
Seeking Alpha analyst Terry Chrisomalis regards Viking Therapeutics as the most attractive M&A candidate in 2025, bolstered by its strong obesity candidate VK2735 and largely de-risked MASH therapy VK2809.
Orbis emerged from stealth in February 2024 with $28.1 million in seed funding. The Danish biotech, which aims to flip biologics into oral medicines, has now raised another $93 million.