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Replimune is axing 144 employees at its Woburn headquarters and 80 at its Framingham manufacturing site. The cuts follow the FDA’s second rejection of the biotech’s advanced melanoma candidate.
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Doubling survival in pancreatic cancer, a long-fought rare disease approval, a massive IPO and ambitious biotech entrepreneurs have BioSpace Senior Editor Annalee Armstrong feeling upbeat about the biotech scene.
After Replimune’s advanced melanoma drug was rejected for a second time, CEO Sushil Patel slammed the FDA for failing to exercise regulatory flexibility, while other experts bemoaned the agency’s lack of consistency. With new safety guidelines for gene editing therapies, the FDA has taken a first step toward fixing both problems.
The Merck update, which will shed light on a $588 million bet to succeed Keytruda, is part of a roster of presentations that could shape the future of ADCs, protein degraders and KRAS-targeted therapies.
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Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy has a few months’ head start on Eli Lilly’s newly approved pill. While the Indianapolis pharma has come from behind the Danish rival in the weight loss space before, last time it clearly had the better drug.
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Arguably the FDA’s most anticipated decision this month is for a subcutaneous induction formulation of Biogen and Eisai’s Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi, which, according to Eisai, could “help reduce the burden on healthcare professionals and patients.”
After exiting the FDA less than two weeks ago for unclear reasons, Vinay Prasad is once again director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, HHS confirmed to several outlets Saturday.
Under PreCheck, the FDA will communicate more frequently with pharmaceutical companies, helping them as they establish or expand manufacturing sites in the U.S.
In December 2024, Dewpoint Therapeutics CEO Ameet Nathwani said the biotech’s cash runway would last until the third quarter of 2025.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force makes recommendations for preventive services—including Gilead’s twice-yearly HIV PrEP Yeztugo—that insurers must cover. A recently postponed meeting has raised concerns that Health Secretary RFK Jr. could abolish or overhaul the group.
There is no certainty that the buyout will come to pass, according to The Financial Times, which first reported the rumors.
From the price of forthcoming weight loss pill orforglipron, to Most Favored Nation drug pricing and the market battle with Novo Nordisk, pricing was the number one issue for Eli Lilly on its second quarter earnings call.
Higher competition for fewer roles remains the status quo for biopharma professionals, based on BioSpace data. Additionally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that recent job growth is lower than previously believed.
Strand Therapeutics’ lead asset is STX-001, an intra-tumor self-replicating mRNA therapy that carries a payload expressing the immunomodulatory protein IL-12.