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AstraZeneca has put hundreds of millions of dollars into AI deals, with an eye toward not just accelerating the development of drugs that treat cancer after it appears but also in creating diagnostics that can catch cancer earlier than current methods allow.
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Achondroplasia, which affects around one in 20,000 babies, has just one approved treatment: BioMarin’s Voxzogo. However, new investigational treatments are vying to compete in the area.
The Japanese pharma had one asset rejected by the FDA and withdrew a regulatory application for another, but already this month the company has secured an approval for AstraZeneca-partnered Dato-DXd, to be marketed as Datroway.
While the last decade has brought considerable progress for patients with DMD, substantial unmet need remains. Several companies including Wave, Dyne and Avidity are looking to answer the call with investigational therapies targeting greater efficacy and broader reach.
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The HHS secretary recently canceled $500 million worth of BARDA contracts around mRNA vaccine research. But the U.S. government has already spent billions on this work, which has saved millions of lives.
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With ivonescimab’s data coming solely from China, its prospects in the U.S., where Summit owns the rights, remain up in the air.
FDA
As tariffs, HHS workforce cuts and the ouster of CBER Director Peter Marks threaten the “lifeblood” of the cell and gene therapy space, experts express wariness over the unknowns and optimism that Marks’ legacy will carry on.
The cell and gene therapy company is cutting 47 employees and its entire lupus program to focus resources on two CAR Ts. The move follows a reconfiguration last year to move into immunology.
FDA
As Marty Makary nears the end of his first month on the job, the FDA Commissioner sat down for two interviews, offering statements that alternatively contradict and jibe with reported events.
While AbbVie handily beat expectations this quarter, the company faces declining Humira sales and a challenged aesthetics business, plus the same macro headwinds blowing against the entire industry.
The hold, placed by the FDA on an early-stage clinical trial of an experimental BET inhibitor, stems from a recent observation of testicular toxicity in canines given the treatment.
Big compounders will have until May 22 to stop producing and dispensing compounded semaglutide, while smaller, state-run pharmacies must immediately stop making copies of the blockbuster drug.
Despite steep budget and staffing cuts at the FDA in recent weeks and other headwinds, Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day assured investors that the pharma’s plans and preparations for lenacapavir’s launch remain on track.
Presentations at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research meeting could have a broad impact on the treatment landscape for head and neck and lung cancer, and implications for specific drug modalities like TIGIT and VEGF.
Despite a dip in sales and a recent schizophrenia stumble, the company drew an optimistic outlook for sales for the rest of the year, even as the specter of pharmaceutical tariffs looms.