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The mad rush for safe and effective obesity drugs has winners—including Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy—and losers. Here are five molecules that never made it to the market.
While it’s impossible to make apples-to-apples comparisons of the many obesity candidates with so many differences across clinical trials, we at BioSpace are giving it our best shot.
With results from highly anticipated trials of Eli Lilly’s orforglipron and Viking Therapeutics’ VK2735 “underwhelming” investors, William Blair’s Andy Hsieh predicts weight loss pills will play a bigger role in low- and middle-income countries than in the U.S.
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Moderna, Inc. announced it has been notified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that due to administrative constraints, the agency does not expect to complete its review of the Biologics License Application for mRNA-1345, Moderna’s investigational respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, by the previously communicated Prescription Drug User Fee Act date of May 12, 2024.
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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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At the heart of the agreement is Pfizer’s $70 billion commitment to U.S.-based manufacturing and an exemption from tariffs for three years. While the reaction was mostly positive from Wall Street, other observers noted that the benefits for patients are unclear at best.
As with recent rejections for Biogen and Scholar Rock, manufacturing issues stymied a regulatory bid from Fortress Biotech and Sentynl Therapeutics. Fortress said the FDA did not flag problems with the drug’s safety or efficacy.
Due to policies regarding industry user fees, the FDA will not be able to accept any new drug applications for the duration of the government shutdown, according to Leerink Partners.
The business separation, expected to be completed by the end of 2026, will result in two new companies, one focused on biopharma operations and the other on royalty management.
The first oral BTK blocker for chronic spontaneous urticaria, Rhapsido offers a more convenient treatment option for patients who still show symptoms after antihistamine treatment.
Novo Nordisk and Heartseed first partnered in 2021 to develop an investigational cell therapy for heart failure.
M&A headlined for a second straight week as Genmab acquired Merus for $8 billion; Pfizer strikes most-favored-nation deal with White House; CDER Director George Tidmarsh caused a stir with a now-deleted LinkedIn post; GSK CEO Emma Walmsley will step down from her role; and uniQure’s gene therapy offers new hope for patients with Huntington’s disease.
J&J still holds the top deal of the year by value with its $14.6 billion buy of Intra-Cellular in January, but the next four biggest acquisitions came in the past four months.
The two most historically deal-conservative Big Pharmas have the most money to play with for a major M&A transaction, according to a recent Stifel analysis.
A new analysis from SRS Acquiom puts into perspective the headline values seen when a company announces a backloaded M&A deal. Biotechs have much on the line when they agree to deals with massive potential but little upfront.