News

The White House is clamping down on pharma’s ability to buy new molecules from Chinese biotechs; Sanofi, Merck and others abandon the U.K. after the introduction of a sizeable levy; Novo CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar lays off 9,000 while the company presents new data at EASD; Capsida loses a patient in a gene therapy trial; and CDER Director George Tidmarsh walks back comments on FDA adcomms.
FEATURED STORIES
FDA
On the FDA’s docket for the back half of September is Merck’s proposed subcutaneous formulation of its blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda.
As Novo Nordisk cuts 9,000 people from its organization in a restructuring effort, BioSpace looks back on the Danish pharma company’s rise.
Suddenly one obesity asset has come to define Amgen but executives see a fuller portfolio that will bring the big biotech into the future.
Job Trends
Given today’s available local talent pool, biopharma companies are less likely to turn toward international job candidates, according to a talent acquisition expert. Findings from two recent BioSpace LinkedIn polls underscore the issue.
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Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
Health and Human Services employees aren’t the only ones out of work. Thousands of private-sector biopharma professionals lost their jobs in the first quarter.
THE LATEST
Novartis and Monte Rosa first partnered in October 2024 for a molecular glue asset for immune-mediated and autoimmune diseases. This time, the pharma is putting $120 million down upfront for more of the biotech’s AI-discovered degraders.
CDER Director George Tidmarsh said on two separate events last week that he thought advisory committee meetings for specific drug applications were redundant, but then denied having said the agency would abandon them.
AstraZeneca in January also stopped its $610 million plans to construct a vaccine R&D and manufacturing site in the U.K.
While Eli Lilly’s orforglipron is top of mind heading into the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting this week, experts told BioSpace the conference will also provide important insights into the therapeutic benefits of incretin therapies beyond weight loss.
After decades without much movement, a handful of new treatments for this rare autoimmune disease are now approved, and several companies, including argenx and Regeneron, have recently released promising late-stage trial results.
The settlement agreement will extend market exclusivity for AbbVie’s JAK inhibitor in the U.S. until 2037—providing pediatric exclusivity is granted.
Ocaliva won accelerated approval for primary biliary cholangitis in 2016, which the FDA refused to upgrade to full approval last year after an advisory committee was unable to verify a favorable risk/benefit profile.
President Donald Trump is considering tariff exemptions for certain “non-patented” pharmaceuticals, though the White House has yet to release specific guidelines.
IPO
LB Pharma landed on the Nasdaq Thursday, with 3 million additional shares sold than expected.
A draft executive order obtained by The New York Times purports to clamp down on the pharmaceutical industry’s ability to buy new molecules from biotechs based in China, along with a number of other proposed reforms.