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Dyne’s exon-skipping therapy zeleciment rostudirsen resulted in an approximately sevenfold increase in dystrophin levels at six months and elicited functional improvements that are the “best ever” for this treatment class, Stifel analysts said.
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FDA
A week into his tenure as head of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, experts agree that Rick Pazdur is the “ideal fit” to stabilize the agency. And, according to one ex-FDA official, if his CBER counterpart Vinay Prasad tries to supersede Pazdur’s authority, “there will be hell to pay.”
The introduction of AbbVie’s hepatitis C drugs in 2014 forced Gilead’s hand in the fight for market dominance in hepatitis C. A similar dynamic is now playing out between Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk in the obesity space, with some key differences.
The industry’s ability to generate a return on billions of dollars of investment rests on a heavily regulated supply chain defined by time-pressured logistics.
Job Trends
While the job market is tough for life sciences professionals right now, it won’t always be. Employers must continue striving to create fulfilling work environments, as the market won’t always be in their favor, say biopharma execs.
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
With Novo Holdings’ $16.5 billion buyout of Catalent being reviewed by regulators, what work the contract drug manufacturer may or may not be performing for Eli Lilly remains a point of contention.
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Protego Biopharma is advancing a small-molecule drug that helps light chain proteins fold correctly, in turn addressing the underlying biological cause of AL amyloidosis.
The centerpiece of the deal is the in vivo editor TSRA-196, which in preclinical studies has shown robust editing at SERPINA1, the locus linked to alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
The alleged deaths were detected by the FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, reports from which “generally cannot be used to determine” causation or even contribution, according to the agency.
FDA
If approved, Ascendis’ TransCon CNP would become the second therapy for achondroplasia, challenging BioMarin’s Voxzogo.
As bispecifics, ADCs, protein degraders, and AI-designed mini-proteins move into the clinic, discovery teams face a new bottleneck: engineering and producing molecules whose complexity challenges conventional workflows.
As big pharmas including Takeda and Novo Nordisk flee the cell therapy space and smaller biotechs shutter their operations, these players are sticking around to take the modality as far as it can go.
The FDA’s docket in December includes decisions for two big biologic franchises: BMS’s Breyanzi and Amgen’s Uplizna.
This year has seen the approval of several first-in-class therapies for HAE, but in a fragmented space, experts question whether they will be enough to net their developers a significant share of the entrenched market.
Analysts at Guggenheim Partners expect Voyxact to see “broad commercial uptake” given its relatively broad label compared with previous accelerated approvals for IgA nephropathy.
The discounts should be compared against the drugs’ “ultimate net price” rather than their indicated list price to gauge the true impact of the negotiations, BMO Capital Markets analysts said.