News

The Denton site is part of a network of manufacturing plants Novartis is building across the U.S. to make cancer drugs that must be shipped to patients quickly.
FEATURED STORIES
IPO
LB Pharma needed $350 million to advance a promising schizophrenia candidate at a time when the biotech markets were locked up tight. Fortunately, it wasn’t CEO Heather Turner’s first rodeo.
Rare disease drug developers struggle to survive in a biopharma investment market that prioritizes large patient populations. Initiatives like the Orphan Therapeutics Accelerator are attempting to solve what CEO Craig Martin says is not a science problem, but a math problem.
Eli Lilly’s win in a head-to-head trial drove Novo Nordisk’s market cap to pre-Wegovy levels not long after the victor became the first pharma company to top a $1 trillion valuation. It seems one company can do no right, while the other can do no wrong.
Job Trends
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
FDA
Following the FDA’s refusal to review Moderna’s investigational mRNA flu vaccine last week, Commissioner Marty Makary faced questions from the U.S. president about the agency’s handling of vaccines. It’s a clear signal that the tension long brewing at the drug regulator has now gone all the way to the top.
THE LATEST
As the antibody-drug conjugate space continues to heat up, Merck has acquired preclinical startup Abceutics—spun out of the University at Buffalo—and its novel platform that aims to make ADC therapeutics safer.
Novo Nordisk and Ionis Pharmaceuticals unveiled promising respective data at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session, while Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly’s Jardiance missed the endpoint in a myocardial infarction study.
Fresh off of its $14 billion acquisition of Karuna Therapeutics, Bristol Myers Squibb on Saturday reported promising late-stage data for Karuna’s antipsychotic KarXT, which elicited significant symptomatic improvement in schizophrenia symptoms.
FDA
AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s antibody-drug conjugate Enhertu is the first FDA-approved tumor-agnostic HER2-targeted therapy authorized for the treatment of solid tumors in adults who have undergone prior systemic treatment.
FDA
The approvals, third line for BMS and 2seventy Bio’s Abecma and second line for J&J and Legend Biotech’s Carvykti, represent a new class of therapy for these blood cancer patients.
Recent warnings about Chinese biopharma partners from members of Congress and U.S. intelligence officials have reached a fever pitch in Washington.
The FTC and the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division will have another 30 days to examine Novo Nordisk Foundation’s acquisition of contract manufacturer Catalent, according to an SEC filing.
Contineum Therapeutics priced its initial public offering Friday, scaling back its expectations for gross proceeds of $110 million for clinical trials of a challenger to Boehringer Ingelheim and Roche.
2024 began with several biopharma players posting positive Phase III data that could mean new market share for the companies and longer survival times and quality of life for patients.
Following disappointing Phase III results in less aggressive non-small cell lung cancer, AstraZeneca on Friday announced that Imfinzi improved progression-free and overall survival in patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer.