News
Biogen’s new data, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, supports a tau-focused approach to the intractable neurodegenerative disease; psychedelics are back in the news with more positive data from Compass Pathways and final guidance from the FDA; and the ATTR-CM space got a major shakeup with the late-stage failure of AstraZeneca and Ionis’ antisense therapeutic.
FEATURED STORIES
Biopharma is entering its second-quarter earnings season riding high on a wave of massive deals and venture capital flow, plus a clearing of regulatory and policy overhangs. What can industry watchers expect to hear on the upcoming investor calls?
Biogen touted an “unprecedented” drop in tau in a Phase 2 trial, backing the company’s decision to take diranersen to Phase 3 despite a missed primary endpoint and seemingly supporting the anti-tau approach.
As antibody-drug conjugates advance and move into earlier lines of treatment, drug developers have to build gentler therapies that don’t just extend survival but improve it.
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
Congressional letters sent to the CEOs of Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Merck, BMS and AbbVie this week voicing concerns about the pharmas’ clinical trials in China highlight an ongoing discrepancy in how government and industry think about the rise of the Asian country’s biotech industry.
THE LATEST
China continues to be a source of innovation as Pfizer strikes biggest pact yet; HHS provides more info on Trump’s Most Favored Nation executive order; FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and CBER director Vinay Prasad reveal new COVID-19 vaccine strategy following Novavax approval; ODAC underway after chaotic planning; more.
BioSpace examines the busiest corporate venture capital arms in the pharmaceutical industry. Novo Holdings, which made headlines last year with its $16.5 billion Catalent buy, topped the list.
From a higher bar for regulatory clearance to pricing limitations, drug development is more expensive than ever. This has led firms to make tough pipeline decisions early in the development process. The result may be costly for all of us.
The new framework was well-received by biopharma analysts, who say it “largely formalizes” current COVID-19 vaccination trends.
Drugmakers will be expected to commit to aligning U.S. prices with the lowest price set in a group of peer nations for all brand products across all markets that do not currently have generic or biosimilar competition.
Most of the 15 million children with a rare disease have no FDA-approved treatments available to them. And when it comes to the most-rare conditions, there isn’t even a pipeline.
The largest Chinese licensing deal behind Pfizer’s is Novartis’ partnership with Shanghai Argo Biopharma, worth potentially more than $4 billion.
The Most Favored Nation order is unlikely to deliver broad, sustained savings without triggering legal challenges, administrative friction and unintended consequences for both the healthcare sector and patient access.
The partnership with Sirius expands CRISPR Therapeutics’ modality toolkit, especially in the cardiovascular space.
The late-stage results come in advance of pivotal data that Ionis expects to provide for its antisense oligonucleotide Tryngolza in the third quarter, building up toward a regulatory submission in hypertriglyceridemia by year-end.