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FDA Commissioner Marty Makary intends to resign on Tuesday, according to several sources. This report follows a tumultuous 13-month tenure in which Makary oversaw the controversial rejections of several rare disease drugs and “predictable volatility” within the agency.
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New guidelines from two leading medical associations suggest that efforts to reduce bad cholesterol should focus on maintaining low levels of two key lipoproteins. Big pharma is all in, looking to improve on the standard statins to help vanquish America’s number one killer: heart disease.
The FDA’s decision last year to make complete response letters public provides new insight into why therapies sometimes fail to get the regulatory greenlight. Analysts say the information could help sponsors refine their regulatory strategies.
The Department of Health and Human Services is spinning its wheels, unable to establish steady leadership at three major divisions—the CDC and the FDA’s two primary review units.
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FDA
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health department has consistently touted radical transparency as being key to its mission. Recent instances—the FDA’s decision not to disclose the recipients of three Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers and FDA and CDC choices not to publish vaccine-related papers—call this intent into question.
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In 17 identical letters posted to his Truth Social account, the president said companies must lower their prices or the government ‘will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued drug pricing practices.’
The FDA greenlit multiple new drugs this month and issued some notable label expansions, including for Eli Lilly’s Kisunla. Meanwhile, the regulator turned away a cell therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and a gene therapy for the rare disease Sanfilippo syndrome.
Bristol Myers Squibb tested Cobenfy as an adjunctive treatment with atypical antipsychotics for schizophrenia in the Phase III ARISE study, which earlier this year failed to demonstrate significant symptom improvement.
For now, Sanofi’s U.S. inventory is insulating the company from a potential 15% tariff on drugs shipped from the EU.
Move over Humira, Skyrizi and Rinvoq are expected to beat the former megablockbuster’s peak sales by the end of this year.
Rumors of Biogen’s disagreements with Eisai have been greatly exaggerated, CEO Chris Viehbacher said during a second quarter earnings call. The partnered Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi saw sales climb 20% for the period.
The announced reduction of hundreds of staff came a day ahead of Moderna’s Q2 earnings report.
While Eli Lilly’s diabetes blockbuster was non-inferior to its older incretin therapy Trulicity in a highly anticipated Phase III cardiovascular outcomes trial, analysts had hoped for statistical significance in reducing major events such as cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke.
Employed biopharma professionals are highly likely to look for new jobs in the next 12 months, although not quite as likely as their unemployed counterparts, according to a BioSpace LinkedIn poll. Three recruitment experts discuss the findings and what’s driving job searches.
In this episode presented by IQVIA, BioSpace’s head of insights Lori Ellis discusses the concerns and opportunities of patient data driving AI tasks with Louise Molloy, associate director medical information and pharmacovigilance.