News
AbbVie scooped up immunology player Apogee Therapeutics for nearly $11 billion in one of the year’s top deals to-date, while Sanofi made a big play to survive its upcoming Dupixent patent cliff; FDA uncertainty continues as the agency changes direction on gene therapies by uniQure and REGENXBIO; and Jef Akst and Annalee Armstrong report back from San Diego.
FEATURED STORIES
While merger and acquisition activity has been robust of late, frequent changes in guidance and leadership at the regulator add risk to any transaction.
With drug pricing now embedded in U.S. policy, business development teams in biotech and pharma are changing the way they strike deals, including acknowledging policy uncertainties with renegotiation clauses.
Former FDA, CDC and NIH leaders convene at the BIO International Convention to discuss the dismantling of the Department of Health and Human Services under the Trump administration—and where we go from here.
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
If cell and gene therapy makers are going to achieve their mission to improve patients’ lives, the industry must come together to share information across stakeholders, from regulators to manufacturers to payers.
THE LATEST
RayThera will bring three preclinical assets into the Biogen fold, all with anti-inflammatory activity. The most mature of these assets is expected to enter Phase 1 development in Q3.
After being rejected in June 2022, GSK paid Spero Therapeutics $66 million for an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize the drug. It’s the second oral antibiotic GSK has brought to market since the beginning of last year.
While agents like AbbVie’s Humira have transformed the treatment landscape, not all patients benefit equally from the drug. Better biomarker analysis and more investment in mechanistic trials can inform the development of more effective therapies with broader clinical value.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals is diversifying its oncology strategy, orchestrating a new antibody deal with AbCellera that offers $56 million upfront, plus $792 million in biobucks for each of the three initial programs.
After a regulatory odyssey that delayed a filing for what would be the first genetic medicine for Huntington’s disease, the FDA has agreed that three-year data from uniQure’s Phase 1/2 trial are sufficient to support an accelerated biologics license application.
Be Biopharma’s terminated trial is the latest setback in the hemophilia space, where companies like Pfizer and BioMarin have opted to pull their respective products from the market after weak traction.
Although Edgewise Therapeutics’ hypertrophic cardiomyopathy asset missed expectations, Truist Securities called the data “excellent,” leaning on a safety profile that could eliminate the need for risk evaluation and mitigation strategies.
Merck will use Protillion Biosciences’ tech to design biologic therapies for therapies across undisclosed indications.
Moderna appears to have aligned with the FDA ahead of an advisory committee meeting for its mRNA-based flu vaccine, which the regulator initially turned away in February; biotech IPOs are going gangbusters, including two new records raises in as many weeks; layoffs continue across biopharma; plus much more.
Precision science is ruling the M&A scene as pharmas prepare for loss of exclusivity on key products, PwC says in a new report. Biotechs should be prepared with a dual-track process with the IPO window now open.