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After years of suffering from a bear market and more than 14 months of geopolitical turmoil shaking the macroenvironment, biotech appears to be moving on.
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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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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.
THE LATEST
Friday’s FDA approval of Vertex-CRISPR’s Casgevy and bluebird bio’s Lyfgenia has immediately revealed startling differences between these two gene therapies: price and a black-box warning.
Along with CRISPR/Cas9-based Casgevy—developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics—the regulator on Friday approved bluebird bio’s Lyfgenia, a second gene therapy for sickle cell disease.
Another Flagship-founded company is shutting down its operations, according to an SEC filing. Axcella Health, which was focused on the development of a long COVID therapeutic, is no more.
Plexxikon, which was acquired by Daiichi Sankyo, and Novartis have agreed to settle a patent case involving the cancer drug Tafinlar and its sale in the U.S.
As Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics’ exa-cel and Verve Therapeutics’ VERVE-101 move forward, questions remain about possible drawbacks of such therapies.
The private placement from existing and new investors extends the company’s cash runway into the second half of 2026 and will help take two candidates for inflammatory bowel disease into the clinic in 2024.
For the second time in as many days, Merck has reported a Phase III failure for its blockbuster PD-1 inhibitor Keytruda, this time as a first-line treatment with Eisai’s Lenvima for cancer in the uterus lining.
Results from a Phase III trial showed the combination improves progression-free survival compared to chemotherapy when used as a first-line treatment in metastatic colorectal cancer.
A combination of Merck’s experimental anti-TIGIT antibody vibostolimab and anti-PD-1 drug Keytruda failed to hit its endpoints in a mid-stage non-small cell lung cancer study.
While almost half of multiple myeloma patients on linvoseltamab achieved a complete response or better, all experienced adverse events and 14 patients died due to treatment-emergent AEs.