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Molecular glue degraders are gaining traction in the clinic as well as funding from Big Pharma, with their potential to treat previously “undruggable” cancers and immunological diseases. Here are five clinical programs worth keeping an eye on.
Last month, the FDA launched TrialBlazer, intended to streamline the IND path and bring early clinical trials and medical innovation home to the U.S. It’s a start, but new agency leadership must see it through.
FDA
Significant leadership instability at the FDA—compounded by continued workforce attrition—led to a slight slowdown in overall regulatory productivity in the first half of this year, but the agency has been catching up of late.
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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.
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While the FDA appears to be adamant that uniQure conduct a sham surgery–controlled Phase 3 trial before AMT-130 can be considered for approval, experts believe there is an alternate path forward for the therapy, perhaps even based on precedent from the recent drama surrounding Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine.
FDA
Adam Urato, who is currently a vaccine advisor to the CDC, is closely associated with acting CDER director Tracy Beth Høeg and is a fellow skeptic of the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors during pregnancy.
The timing of the partial hold is “odd,” according to analysts at Stifel, who noted that the preclinical data the FDA took issue with were filed in mid-2024.
South Korea has attracted increasing investment from the pharmaceutical industry, which is drawn to the Asian country due to its experience in antibody-drug conjugates and cell and gene therapies, according to McKinsey.
In this episode of Denatured, you’ll listen to Ram May-Ron, managing partner at FreeMind Group, and Ravi Kiron, managing director at Biopharma Strategy Advisors. We’ll be speaking about how to combine nondilutive funding and family office money into a unified strategy that gets companies through the drug development valley of death.
Over half of biopharma professionals would work again at the companies that let them go, according to a BioSpace LinkedIn poll. Several professionals, as well as recruiting and talent acquisition experts, discuss reasons for—and a key risk of—going back.
Having targeted Hims & Hers last year, the FDA has issued warnings to more telehealth companies over their promotion of GLP-1 drugs used to treat diabetes and obesity. In one case, compounded products were linked with multiple ER visits.
UniQure and REGENXBIO are both dealing with FDA setbacks for their respective gene therapies, as regulatory experts question the FDA’s decision-making processes; CBER director Vinay Prasad is under probe for allegedly fostering a toxic workplace; Sarepta CEO Doug Ingram is stepping down after several years of tumult at the top of the muscular dystrophy–focused company; and Eli Lilly again tops Novo Nordisk in a weight loss trial.
The funding comes weeks after TL1A blocker duvakitug maintained clinical remission rates above 50% in patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease in a Phase 2b trial.
While an anonymous source tied the closure to shortcomings in the FDA’s new pathway, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services pushed back on the suggestion.